POPs - Hazardous pollutants call for cross-border collaboration
The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty aiming to protect human health and the environment from the effects of persistent organic pollutants, POPs.
Persistent organic pollutants, POPs, are toxic, chemical substances that have the potential to accumulate in unhealthy quantities in humans and animals. They are stable, resistant to natural breakdown, and harmful to living organisms also at low levels. POPs can be transported over long distances, over international borders and even to regions where they have never been used or produced.
Since the pollutants can be transported through the atmosphere, over oceans, and also via trade of goods, no single country can fully protect its citizens from POPs on its own. International cooperation is necessary to reduce and eliminate production, usage, and emissions from the toxic substances. This is the main reason for the adoption of the Stockholm Convention within the UNEP framework.
The Stockholm Convention, adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004, has been ratified by 186 nations and regions in total. Today the convention includes 34 substances or groups of substances including pesticides, industrial chemicals, and unintentionally formed substances.
In 2021 the Convention celebrated its 20th anniversary, to celebrate this milestone, the Secretariat produced the video series “Twenty Voices for Twenty Years” to gather, document and share stories, experiences, successes from the Convention’s first 20 years.
This video series was funded by the Swedish EPA and can be found here:
Main goals of the convention
There are a number of goals stated in the convention, for example:
- Production and usage of intentionally produced POPs will be significantly limited or phased out
- Import and export of certain substances is only permitted when safe waste handling and controlled conditions can be guaranteed
- Emissions of unintentionally produced POPs will be continuously reduced and eliminated when possible
- Waste that includes or has been contaminated by POPs will be handled in such a way that their content is no longer harmful
- Waste management that can lead to recycling or reuse of POPs is prohibited.
The secretariat and website
The Stockholm Convention secretariat is located at the UNEP in Geneva.
Action plan
Every country and region that has signed the convention is obliged to organise, implement, and regularly update a National Implementation Plan, NIP, for the reduction of POPs listed in the convention. There is an ongoing process for adding more substances to the list. The first NIP was presented in 2006 and most recently updated in 2020.
In accordance with the decision made at convention’s Conference of the Parts, COP, the Swedish EPA has updated the Swedish NIP together with the Swedish Chemicals Agency and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management.
Below is a list of all Swedish updated actions plans (all in English with a summary in Swedish).
Contact and more information
Would you like to know more about the Stockholm Convention? Send an email to Anna Nylander, anna.nylander@naturvardsverket.se