September 2013: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has approved national activities to update the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) National Implementation Plans (NIPs). The project will be implemented by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) over two years, and will be executed together with national governments.

The total funding package for the 27 countries is over US$ 5 million. African countries included in the project are Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Libya, Madagascar and Malawi. Asian countries include Afghanistan, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon and Malaysia. Central and Eastern European countries included in the project are Albania, Croatia and Montenegro. The Latin American and Caribbean countries are Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Pacific countries in the project are Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

The Stockholm Convention initially classified 12 POPs: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene; hexachlorobenzene (HCB), polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans. Under the Convention, governments are required to promote best available techniques (BAT) and best environmental practices (BEP) for replacing existing POPs while preventing the development of new POPs. The NIPs set out government plans for addressing POPs.

In 2009, Parties to the Convention agreed to add nine more chemicals to the Convention: c-pentabromodiphenyl ether; chlordecone; hexabromobiphenyl (HBB); alpha hexachlorocyclohexane (alphaHCH); betaHCH; lindane; c-octabromodiphenyl ether, pentachlorobenzene (PeCB) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), its salts and PFOS fluoride. In 2011, Parties added endosulfan to the Convention.

The project is titled ‘Global project on the updating of NIPs for POPs.’ [GEF Project Webpage]