SUMMARY RECORD. Paris, 10 June 2003

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1 SUMMARY RECORD 10 th Meeting of the IOMC PRTR Co-ordinating Group Paris, 10 June The tenth meeting of the IOMC PRTR Co-ordinating Group (CG) was held in Paris on 10 June The meeting focused primarily on the content and presentation of the report the CG has submitted to Forum IV on activities undertaken as follow-up to the Forum III Priorities for Action. The Agenda of the meeting is attached as Annex 1, and the List of Participants as Annex 2. Election of Chairman 2. At the tenth meeting of the PRTR Co-ordinating meeting, a new Chairman was elected. The Chairman, Harald Sorby, has been seconded as of 1 September 2003 for one year to the OECD Secretariat for the PRTR work, preventing him to continue chairing the PRTR Co-ordination Group. Margareta Stackerud, Swedish EPA, nominated Charlie Corbishley from Environment Agency for England and Wales Pollution Inventory to be the Chairman. Members of the Co-ordinating Group supported the nomination. Mr. Corbishley will take up his duties as the Chairman at the next meeting of the CG. IFCS Forum IV Information Report on PRTRs to Forum IV 3. The Co-ordinating Group had a lengthy discussion on the content of the presentation to be provided at Forum IV, due to the short timeframe allocated to this presentation. Several participants emphasized that wide and easy public access is one of the key features of a successful PRTR. While most difficulties related to domestic access to PRTR data have been overcome in OECD countries, the international access still have problems in many countries due to high translation costs. However, several countries, among others Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, etc., are in a process to translate their PRTR into English. The inclusion of the core elements into the established PRTRs and wide public access to them, preferably multilingual, was considered an important aspect of a successful PRTR. 4. Capacity building was considered very important for further development of PRTRs in developing countries and, therefore, participation of interested countries through IFCS in the work of the IOMC PRTR Co-ordinating Group is highly recommended. Participants also recognised that no single clearinghouse would be sufficient in this respect. Rather, the Group will try to map the needs of developing countries in the context of future awareness-raising workshops and build future actions on the findings. UNITAR volunteered to develop such a questionnaire for a survey at the upcoming SaoPaulo workshop. 5. According to the accumulated experience, successful implementation of a PRTR would benefit from a regulatory framework. 6. Based on the discussion, the Co-ordination Group recognised that PRTRs and/or emission inventories are becoming an increasingly important tool for countries to report on releases and transfers of pollutants and/or chemical substances of concern and as a vehicle for public access to environmental information. PRTRs are also increasingly used to support regional efforts to reduce chemical risks. 1

2 7. The main messages to be submitted to Forum IV will include: i) Established PRTRs should include the key elements referred to in the Forum IV report, among which wide and easy public access plays a key role; ii) Capacity building is the key for further development of PRTRs in developing countries and, to this end, participation of interested countries through IFCS in the work of the IOMC PRTR Coordinating Group is highly recommended. In addition, the IOMC PRTR CG will explore ways and means, such as clearinghouse, to convey accumulated experience and guidance to countries interested in establishing a PRTR programme; and iii) One of the main lessons learned is that a regulatory framework would support a successful PRTR programme Presentation of the Report 8. The Co-ordinating Group asked the new Chairman, Mr. Charlie Corbishley from the United Kingdom to present the report at Forum IV. Mr. Georg Karlaganis from Switzerland will record the session. Update on PRTR Activities UNITAR 9. Jorge Ocaña briefed participants on UNITAR s partnership with Environment Canada and U.S. EPA to promote PRTR development in South America. Workshops are being held in Chile (June 2003) and Equador (October 2003) to present the results of PRTR development activities and to define the future steps for this work. The second edition of the UNITAR CD-rom on the Compilation of PRTR resource materials is available at: Comments are welcomed by 10 July Mr. Ocaña informed that UNITAR is working with UNEP (UNEP was not represented at the meeting) to organize a PRTR awareness-raising workshop for South American countries in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June A similar workshop for Central American countries will be held in San José, Costa Rica in September A PRTR conference for all countries of the Americas is also planned for Monterrey, Mexico in Mr. Ocaña also reported on the development of a virtual classroom for PRTR learning, the pilot phase of which is sponsored by the Dutch Government. The PRTR Working Group under the Aarhus Convention decided in March 2002 to start a pilot project on exchanging knowledge about PRTRs between Member countries and participating organizations that is called virtual classroom. The objective of the project is to facilitate the development of national PRTR systems under the PRTR Protocol. The knowledge management system will allow countries to access individuals and organizations with experience and know-how on PRTRs. The virtual classroom is open to everybody and a pilot version is available at: 2

3 UNECE 12. Jeremy Wates informed the participants that the PRTR Protocol to the Aarhus Convention was adopted and opened for signature at the Fifth Ministerial Environment for Europe Conference, which took place in Kiev, Ukraine, May Thirty-six (36) States and the European Community signed the Protocol in Kiev. Signatories also established a Working Group (WG) on PRTRs, as an open-ended subsidiary body to the Meeting of the Parties (MOP). The WG will carry out the needed activities until the first session of the MOP. 13. Karel Blaha, Chair of the WG, reported on the PRTR side event that was organised in Kiev on 21 May The event was chaired by Harald Sorby and it attracted a lot of attention and interest among the delegates. OECD 14. Maria Doa, the Chairperson of the OECD Task Force on PRTRs, informed the participants of the on-going work and the outcome of the 5 th Task Force meeting that was hosted by the Japanese Government in Tokyo on 4-6 March The Task Force is in the process of finalising and publishing several guidance documents, among others Parts 2 and 3 of the Resource Compendium of PRTR Estimation Techniques (RET) focusing on diffuse sources and transfers, a guidance document on Communication Tools on RETs for PRTR Reporters and a scoping study on the possible uses of PRTR data in environmental management systems. In addition, the Task Force is developing a web-based Resource Center for RETs and a Database for International Comparison of PRTR Data. 15. With respect to other PRTR work, the OECD Council adopted on 28 May 2003 an amendment [C(2003)87] to its Council Recommendation on Implementing PRTRs [C(96)41/FINAL]. The amendment added the core elements of the PRTR into the Recommendation. Nordic Co-operation 16. Harald Sorby informed that the Nordic Council has established a PRTR Group to co-ordinate PRTR work in Scandinavia. Japan 17. Mr. Teruyoshi Hayamizu reported that Japan published in March 2003 their first PRTR report for 2001data on 354 chemicals based on the legislative framework. The report includes release and transfer data submitted by industry for 35,000 facilities and estimated release data for diffuse sources. Translation of the information into English is underway. Sweden 18. Mrs. Margareta Stackerud reported on the recent publication of the Swedish first PRTR report for 2001 data. According to the EPER requirements, 70 pollutants are included for some 1050 facilities. Presently, the information exists only partially in English, but will be shortly translated in total. Access is provided at: Next Meeting 19. The next meeting of the CG will be held in Paris on 2 February 2004, in conjunction with the 36 th OECD Joint Meeting that is scheduled for 3-6 February

4 ANNEX 1 Draft Agenda 10th Meeting of the IOMC PRTR Co-ordinating Group Paris Date: 10 June 2003 Location: Start time: 2, rue André-Pascal, Paris (OECD Headquarter) Room 9, New Building 10h00 I. Opening Remarks Harald Sorby, Chairman II. III. IV. Report on PRTRs for Forum IV (Document: PRTRCG(2003)10/2) Status of report: Harald Sorby, Norway Presentation of the Report at the Forum IV meeting Progress Reports in Major PRTR Activities - OECD (PRTRCG(2003)10/3) - UNEP - UNITAR - UNECE - Virtual Classroom as a tool for capacity building (Pieter van der Most) - Other Members V. Election of New Chairman VI. Other Business Annex: List of Meeting Documents PRTRCG(2003)10/1: Agenda PRTRCG(2003)10/2: Report to Forum IV on PRTRs PRTRCG(2003)10/3: Outcome of the 5 th PRTR TF, including the amended Council Recommendation on PRTRs 4

5 ANNEX 2 PARTICIPANTS LIST FOR MEETING OF THE 10TH IOMC PRTR CO-ORDINATING GROUP LISTE DES PARTICIPANTS POUR LE GROUPE DE CO-ORDINATION POUR LE 10EME IOMC/IETMP 10 June 2003 Canada / Canada Mr. Jody ROSENBERGER Advisor, Pollution Data Branch Environment Canada 351 St Joseph Blvd Hull Quebec K1A 0HS Canada Tel : Fax : jody.rosenberger@ec.gc.ca Etats-Unis / United States Ms. Maria DOA Director, TRI Program Division (2844T) US EPA Office of Environmental Information Ariel Rios Building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C United States Tel : Fax : doa.maria@epa.gov Ms. Ellen SILBERGELD Professor Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health 615 North Wolfe Street Baltimore MD United States Tel : Fax : esilberg@jhsph.edu 5

6 Japon / Japan Mr. Teruyoshi HAYAMIZU Director Ministry of the Environment Chemicals Evaluation Office, Environmental Health Department Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo Japan Tel : +81 (0) Fax : +81 (0) teruyoshi_hayamizu@env.go.jp Norvège / Norway Mr. Harald SORBY (Chairman) Senior Advisor Norwegian Pollution Control Authority Department of Industry PO BOX 8100 Dep N-0032 Oslo Norway Tel : Fax : harald.sorby@sft.no Pays-Bas / Netherlands Pieter VAN DER MOST Inspectorate for Environmental Protection NL PO Box GX The Hague Netherlands Tel : Fax : pieter.vandermost@minvrom.nl République Tchèque / Czech Republic Mr. Karel BLAHA Head of Department Ministry of Environment Department of Environmental Risks Vrsovicka Prague Czech Republic Tel : Fax : blaha@env.cz 6

7 Suède / Sweden Ms. Margareta STACKERUD Senior Scientific Officer Swedish Environmental Protection Agency SE Stockholm Sweden Tel : Fax : margareta.stackerud@naturvardsverket.se Suisse / Switzerland Mr. Georg KARLAGANIS Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests & Landscape Worblentalstrasse 68 CH-3003 Berne Switzerland Tel : Fax : Georg.Karlaganis@buwal.admin.ch Commission Economique pour l'europe des Nations Unies (CEE-ONU) / U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Mr. Jeremy WATES Secretary to the Aarhus Convention U. N. Economic Commission for Europe Environment and Human Settlements Division Bureau 332Palais des Nations Geneva 10 Switzerland Tel : Fax : jeremy.wates@unece.org U.N. Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) / U.N. Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Mr. Jorge OCANA UNITAR Chemicals Waste Management Palais des Nations 1211 Genève 10 Geneva Switzerland Tel : Fax : jorge.ocana@unitar.org OCDE / OECD Mr. Henrik HARJULA OECD ENVIRONMENT DIRECTORATE 2, rue André Pascal Paris France Tel : Fax : Henrik.HARJULA@oecd.org 7

8 Ms. Jacy Gray MCGAW OECD ENVIRONMENT DIRECTORATE 2, rue André Pascal Paris France Tel : Jacy.MCGAW@oecd.org 8