Secretariat of the Basel Convention

Side event COP 2 Stockholm Convention: Implementation of projects related to POPs wastes through the Basel

Convention Regional Centres

Andreas ArltSecretariat of the Basel Convention (SBC)

Preparation of national inventories, and national plans for the environmentally sound management of PCB and PCB containing equipment in Central America

and Panama

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CRCB

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• Joint project of UNEP DTIE-Chemicals Branch and SBC aimed at helping countries in their implementation of the Basel and Stockholm Conventions

• Implemented by SBC and the BCRC–El Salvador

• Geographical scope:Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá (6 Central American countries)

• Duration: 25 months (July 2004 – July 2006)

• Budget: about US-$ 648,000

• Donors:United States of America (US EPA): US-$ 350,000

Finland: US-$ 250,000

Basel Convention Fund (BD) US-$ 48,000

General Information

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1. Preparation of National Inventories of PCBs and PCB containing equipment

2. Preparation of National Action Plans for the environmentally sound management (ESM) of PCBs

3. Development of a regional strategy for the environmentally sound management, including disposal, of PCBs

4. Assessment of existing national legislation and regulations on the environmentally sound management of PCBs

5. Development of a draft legislation reflecting obligations of Parties to the Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam Convention

6. Increasing the capacity of participating countries in controlling the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes

Objectives

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Institutional Framework

National coordinators

National committee

National experts

National coordinators

National committee

National experts

National coordinators

National committee

National experts

Regional Coordination

Regional Coordinator

Team of the regional coordinator

(Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" (UCA))

International experts

Joint Management Team

UNEP/SBC

UNEP DTIE, Chemicals Branch

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Regional level• 4 regional workshops for national coordinators and national

experts

• Coordination of the project

• Training courses (PCB inventories, national action plans, control of transboundary movement)

• Development of the regional strategy, draft legislation

National level• Development of the inventory

• Development of the draft national action plans on ESM of PCBs

• Development of a draft national legislation

Activities

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1. Inventories

• All countries prepare their national inventories of transformers by collecting data from the electricity sector (generation, transmission, distribution), industry, public sector.

• Inventories will contain up to 90 % of the existing transformers in each country.

• Industry and public sector contribute their existing data.

• However, analysing transformer oils will not be finished by end of the project, because of temporal, budgetary and technical constraints.

Results (1)

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DATABASE for National PCB Inventories

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Results (2)

2. Preparation of National Action Plans for the environmentally sound management (ESM) of PCBs

• All countries are in the process of developing their national action plans for ESM of PCBs.

• Some have submitted their first drafts (Activities under the NIPs (Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) are considered). Plans are developed according to the same model in each country

Contents

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Results (3)

3. Development of a regional strategy based on national strategies

4. Assessment of existing national legislation and regulations on the environmentally sound management of PCBs by national legal experts

5. Development of a draft legislation reflecting obligations of Parties to the Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam Convention by an international legal expert

6. Increasing the capacity of participating countries in controlling the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes training during second national workshop

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Way forward

1. Project will be completed by end July 2006.

2. Results (inventories, national action plan, regional strategy) substantial and sufficiently complete to develop a regional disposal project.

3. In the meantime, countries might refine the national inventories in cooperation with the owners of the transformers (electrical sector, industry, public sector).

4. Implementation of a regional project on « Environmentally sound management of PCB containing equipment and disposal of wastes containing PCBs ».

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Concluding remarks

Implementation of the regional project has shown:

1. The development of a regional approach to ESM of specific hazardous wastes is an essential step towards assisting Parties to implement the Basel Convention.

2. The project provides an operational platform to build synergies at the regional level with relevant conventions or programmes.

3. It provides a mechanism for the participation of the private sector.

4. The successful cooperation with UNEP DTIE Chemicals Branch

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Further information

Andreas Arlt United Nations Environment Programme

Secretariat of the Basel Convention (SBC)15, Chemin des Anémones

CH-1219 ChâtelaineGenève, Switzerland

Tel.: +41 22 917 8364Fax: +41 22 797 3454

email: Andreas.Arlt@unep.ch www.basel.int