TREATY GIVES GOVERNMENTS 15 YEARS TO END ALL MERCURY MINING Delegates from 139 nations and territories have committed to make the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury an international law. Ninety two governments have signed the document, which shows their intent to follow the treaty, as each nations legislature ratifies it, adjusting national law where necessary. However, despite the initial report to the contrary,* the law wont actually go into effect until after the legislative bodies of 50 governments have ratified the document, a process that will not be completed until 2016 at the earliest. The treaty gives these governments 15 years to end all mercury mining. However, environmental groups have criticized the accord for failing to address the use of mercy in small-scale gold mining. “The international community has worked together to produce a binding agreements that will help reduce the risk for future generations from increased mercury emissions from industrial processes and trade,” said New Zealand’s Environmental Minister Amy Adams. New Zealand has significant natural emissions of mercury from geothermal and volcanic activity. The Arctic Council, which is chaired by Canada and includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the United States, also expressed their support for the convention. The convention includes provisions aimed at identifying, controlling and cleaning up of mercury from numerous sources. It addresses the direct mining of mercury, export and import of the metal, mercury emissions from industrial activities, significant releases to land and water, safe storage of mercury, contaminated sites and waste mercury. Natural mercury emissions, such as volcanic and geothermal activity, are not covered in the convention. The accord aims to reduce the supply of and demand for mercury, reduce international trade in mercury, reduce atmospheric emissions of mercury, and specify arrangements for capacity-building and technical and financial assistance. The convention takes its name from Minamata, Japan, where a terrible outbreak of mercury poisoning shocked the Japanese in the 1950s. Author: Dorothy Kosich Posted: Monday , 14 Oct 2013 mineweb/
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 15:09:25 +0000
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