International Treaties on Environment

Azarcon, Pia Lea Andrea C.

4AOM

When you see this picture, what country will first enter your mind?

ANTARCTICA

Antarctic Treaty

• Antarctic is claimed by 7 countries (Argentina, Chile, France, United Kingdom, Norway, Australia and New Zealand)

• Signed 1959, implemented 1969• continent would only be used for peaceful

purposes.• Madrid Agreement in 1991, and the Protocol

on Environmental Protection in 1998 strengthened the treaty.

What is Antarctic Treaty all about?

• imposed a ban on exploitation• prohibited future territorial claims• peaceful purposes only• no military activities • Nuclear explosions and disposing of

radioactive wastes are prohibited.

INDUSTRIALIZATION

What is industrialization for you?

For the environment….

…It causes hazardous waste

Industrialization=Hazardous Waste

• wastes include chemical by-products that are poisonous, eco-toxic, explosive, corrosive, flammable, or infectious causing severe health problems--even death-and poisoning.

• Shipped out to faraway places.

Let’s play a guessing game

Clue1: Launched in 1980s.Clue2: Solutions for industrial society issues.Last clue: negotiations under the auspices of

the United Nations Environment Programme.

_H_ B_S_L C_N_E_T_O_THE BASEL

CONVENTION

The Basel Convention

• Control of Trans boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

• designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs).

The Basel Convention

• intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.

The Basel Convention’s Three-Step Strategy

1.) Minimize the generation of wastes

2.) Treat wastes as near as possible to where they are generated

3.) Reduce international movements of hazardous wastes

1. Minimize Generation of Wastes

• “The less waste there is to start with, the less money and work and risk is involved in cleaning it up”

• mean reducing the generation of hazardous wastes to zero

• controlling the storage, transport, treatment, reuse, recycling, recovery and final disposal of wastes. Strategy like 'integrated life-cycle approach', will provide incentives to companies to monitor and control every step in their production processes.

• Consumers, of course, also have a vital role to play. One of the most critical aspects of ESM is lowering consumer demand for products and services that result in hazardous by-products.

• Everyone who consumes manufactured goods

must consider himself or herself as part of the problem, and as a vital part of the solution.

The Basel Convention’s Next Strategy

2. Treat wastes as near as possible to where they are generated

• Site operators must be highly qualified and trained

• Monitoring must be sophisticated enough to detect any leaks or emissions above acceptable standards

• Emergency procedures must be in place in the event of spills or other accidents

• There must be safe storage facilities for residues from waste recovery or incineration.

Technical guidelines to waste management

• The convention address’ disposal methods relevant to a range of wastes, notably specially engineered landfills, high temperature incineration, physicochemical and biological treatments.

Plastics

• disposed off through open, uncontrolled burning and landfills. Open burning releases pollutants into the air-including in some cases cancer-causing furan and dioxins-that can cause various health problems

Guidelines of the convention to Plastics

• The guidelines address a range of waste management issues, such as sorting for mechanical recycling, health and safety, shipping and transport, feedstock recycling, compaction, energy recovery and final disposal.

Lead-acid batteries

• damaged batteries are often broken up manually.

• Inhaling dust, fumes or vapour dispersed in the workplace air can lead to acute lead poisoning.

Guidelines of the convention tolead-batteries

• They describe how to collect, transport and store used batteries; give specifications for the storage chambers and transport facilities; describe how batteries delivered to the recycling plant should be drained of their electrolytes, identified, segregated, and stored; explain how the recovered lead must be refined in order to remove unwanted contaminants; and address medical issues and public awareness.

• The Basel Convention’s Next Strategy

3. Minimize international movement of hazardous wastes

• The Convention requires every company or broker wishing to export hazardous wastes to ask the Government.

• Each approved shipment must be accompanied by a 'movement document' with a detailed description of the contents and their disposal requirements, from the point at which the export begins to the point of disposal.

• Other wastes are sent to recycling plants in countries where the market demand for that material is sufficiently high to ensure proper recycling.

Ban Amendment (EU,OECD)

• shall not export hazardous wastes intended for recovery, recycling or final disposal to countries not listed in Annex VII.

Protocol on Liability and Compensation

• describes how to determine liability and to ensure adequate and prompt compensation for any damage in the event of an accidental spill from a legal shipment or dumping by an illegal trader.

The Manualfar

• Implementation of the Convention describes the process for agreeing to and then overseeing the imports and exports of hazardous wastes.

• provide practical and hands-on support on technical, technological and enforcement issues.

• offer training, disseminate information, and promote public awareness.

Convention's Secretariat.

• The Secretariat works in collaboration with the national authorities on developing national legislation

• setting up inventories of hazardous wastes, • strengthening national institutions,• assessing the hazardous waste management situation,• preparing hazardous waste management plans and

policy tools,• strengthen enforcement efforts

• In case of a hazardous waste spill or other emergency, the Secretariat contacts governments and international organizations that can assist rapidly with expertise and equipment.

Addition to Basel convention…In addition to the Basel Convention, two major United Nations

Environment Programme (UNEP) conventions tackle key aspects of the chemicals lifecycle…

1.) The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants seeks to reduce and eliminate the release of a particularly dangerous group of chemicals

2.) The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in international Trade helps governments to decide whether or not to accept imports of certain hazardous chemicals and to refuse imports if they decide that they cannot safely manage them.

Strategic Plan of the Basel Convention.

1. the regional approach2. waste minimization3. integrated waste management, and4. the life cycle approach.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!