The Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Minamata Convention on Mercury that adopted the Convention in Kumamoto, Japan, in October 2013 established and mandated a group of technical experts, nominated from each region, as a subsidiary body which reports to the intergovernmental negotiating committee on mercury, to develop the guidance called for in Article 8 of the Convention (UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/CONF/4, Resolution 1, paragraph 10). The list of membership of the group of technical experts is available here.
The group met on four occasions: in February 2014 in Ottawa, Canada; in September 2014 in Montreux, Switzerland; in March 2015 in Pretoria, South Africa and in September 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden.
The comments received during the public comment phase and discussed at the fourth meeting of the group are available here. The ways in which the group addressed the comments are set out in document UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.7/INF.1.
The group forwarded the draft guidance it prepared to the seventh session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee in documents UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/INC.7/6/Add.1, /Add.2, /Add.3 and /Add.4 available here.
At that session, the committee adopted on a provisional basis, pending formal adoption by the Conference of the Parties at its first meeting:
- the draft guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices,
- the draft guidance on criteria that parties might develop pursuant to paragraph 2 (b) of article 8,
- the draft guidance on preparing inventories of emissions, as well as
- the draft guidance on support for parties in implementing the measures set out in paragraph 5 of article 8, in particular in determining goals and in setting emissions limit values.
These provisionally adopted guidance are available here.