The second session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on mercury (INC2) was held in Chiba, Japan from 24 to 28 January 2011.
At the second session of the committee, delegates agreed to base their discussion on the draft elements of a comprehensive approach to mercury that the secretariat had prepared. All sections of this document, based on the mandate provided by the UNEP Governing Council in its decision 25/5, were debated in plenary during the course of the meeting. Contact groups worked on three topics: storage, waste and contaminated sites; artisanal and small-scale gold mining; emissions to air and releases to water and land. Facilitators were mandated to gather views of delegates on a series of other issues. The meeting also agreed on the establishment of a legal group.
The committee concluded by requesting the secretariat to prepare additional documents for consideration by the committee at its next session, including a new draft text of the comprehensive and suitable approach to mercury. This new text would be based on the draft elements paper prepared for the second session of the committee and would reflect views on the possible content of the mercury instrument as expressed by the parties at the second session and as submitted by parties to the secretariat in writing.
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/1 - Provisional agenda
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/1/Add.1 - Annotations to the provisional agenda
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/2 - Scenario note for the second session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee on mercury
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/3 - Draft elements of a comprehensive and suitable approach to a global legally binding instrument on mercury
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/4 - Study on mercury sources and emissions and analysis of the costs and effectiveness of control measures.
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/5 - Report on indicators to evaluate and track the health impacts of mercury and identify vulnerable populations
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/6 - Report on information on harmonized systems for measuring mercury body burden
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/7 - Existing country-specific or regional monitoring efforts relating to fish and marine mammals in the food chain
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/8 - Inventory of projects completed or underway in each country relating to artisanal and small-scale gold mining, including awareness-raising, technical assistance, fomalization and financial assistance projects.
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/9 - Methodologies for determining mercury exposure in people involved in artisanal and small-scale gold mining
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/10/Rev.1 - Collation and analysis of available data on mercury releases in relevant sectors at the national level
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/11 - Mercury-containing products, processes and technologies and their alternatives
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/12 - Cost-benefit analysis of existing alternatives to mercury-based products, processes and technologies
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/13 - Options for regulating mercury in products
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/14 - Analysis of possible funding sources and what they might cover, including an analysis of the role of the private sector
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/15 - Analysis of possible options for using partnerships to help achieve the goals of the future instrument on mercury
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/16 - Relationship between the future mercury instrument and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/17 - Global inventory of mercury cell chlor-alkali facilities
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/18 - Process optimization guidance for reducing mercury emissions from coal combusion in power plants
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/19 - Executive summary of the document on guidance for identifying populations at risk from mercury exposure
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/20 - Report of the intergovernmental negotiating committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on mercury on the work of its second session
INFORMATION DOCUMENTS:
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/INF/1 - Information submitted by Governments in response to the request for views on elements of a comprehensive and suitable approach to a legally binding instrument on mercury and information relevant to the work of the intergovernmental negotiating committee
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/INF/2 - Guidelines on the environmentally sound management of elemental mercury and waste containing or contaminated with mercury
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/INF/3 - Guidance for identifying populations at risk from mercury exposure
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/INF/4 - Available information that might assist the committee’s work
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/INF/5 - Process optimization guidance for reducing mercury emissions from coal combustion in power plants ...
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/INF/6 - Pollutant release and transfer registers as a reporting mechanism for mercury releases and transfers ...
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.2/INF/9 - List of Participants