CIEL applauds recommendation on global mercury policy framework

CIEL applauds the October 10, 2008 recommendation of governments on a global policy framework to address the mercury pollution crisis. Meeting as the second "ad hoc Open-ended Working Group on Mercury" (OEWG) in Nairobi, Kenya, government delegates from all regions, joined by representatives of environmental and public health NGOs and other stakeholders, for the first time identified a clearly defined United Nations objective for addressing the global challenges posed by mercury, as well as specific actions that countries should take. These key actions collectively comprise a comprehensive approach to address and resolve the threat of mercury pollution from mining, waste disposal, industrial activities, and other human sources. The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will forward the OEWG's recommendations to the UNEP Governing Council, which will consider them in taking a long-awaited decision on mercury at its twenty-fifth session in February 2009.

Since the first OEWG meeting in November 2007, CIEL has played a central role in developing the strategies and informational documents that made the OEWG's recommendation possible. CIEL Senior Attorney Glenn Wiser wrote the UNEP papers that identified and analyzed the legal options for addressing mercury that served as the bases for the negotiations. Mr. Wiser served as a member of the UNEP Secretariat for both OEWG meetings. Collaborating closely with UNEP staff, he prepared the original draft of the mercury policy framework, prepared the original and final drafts of the OEWG's report to Governing Council, and helped broker many of the deals that made agreement between governments possible.

Left unanswered for now is the question of how the global community will implement the new mercury policy framework. While the large majority of governments support a legally binding treaty, others prefer a non-binding, "enhanced" voluntary approach. In its report to Governing Council, the OEWG identified the legal option of a comprehensive treaty and various voluntary approaches and included a list of their respective advantages and disadvantages, but it made little headway in resolving the "legal versus voluntary" debate.

CIEL recognizes that much work needs to be done between now and the Governing Council's twenty-fifth session if the Governing Council is to achieve consensus and move forward with a coherent, effective plan to protect human health and the global environment from mercury pollution. CIEL believes that achieving consensus may require Governing Council to combine elements from both the legally binding and voluntary options, and to develop them in stages according to a pre-agreed schedule. CIEL intends to work actively over the coming months to assist UNEP and governments to identify, evaluate and, hopefully, agree upon innovative approaches that will meet the needs of all countries, and permit the global community to move decisively to solve the global mercury crisis.