15 March 2016: The seventh session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Prepare a Global Legally Binding Instrument on Mercury (INC7) convened in preparation for the Minamata Convention’s entry into force. Delegates provisionally adopted technical guidance documents on: controlling emissions and determining emission limits; identifying individual stocks of mercury and mercury compounds; procedures for export and import of mercury; operation of a financial mechanism; and draft rules of procedure and draft financial rules for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention.

INC7 convened from 10-15 March 2016, at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre, Dead Sea, Jordan. Over 300 participants represented 103 governments, in addition to many non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations.

The meeting considered guidance on developing national action plans on artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), and finalized a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), including proposed guidance to GEF on financing and activities related to implementation of the Convention. Some delegates called for secretariat guidance on mercury-contaminated sites.

INC7 was the second of two negotiating sessions planned for the interim period between the 2013 adoption of the Minamata Convention and its first Conference of the Parties (COP1), which aim to develop the operational and administrative framework that will facilitate the work of the Convention. INC7 continued the work begun at INC6, which took place in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2014. COP1 will take place after the Convention’s entry into force, anticipated to be in 2017. The Minamata Convention currently has 25 ratifications and requires 50 to enter into force.

As noted in the Earth Negotiation Bulletin‘s brief analysis of INC7, the meeting made progress toward the items it needed to complete, but “by the end of INC7, much work remained, leaving countries little choice but to empower the Bureau to consider the need for an eighth meeting of the INC, which some expect to be a one-day meeting that will be held immediately before COP1.” [IISD RS Meeting Coverage] [INC7 Website] [Minamata Convention Website]