September 2013: The Basel Convention Regional Centre Asia and Pacific/Stockholm Convention Regional Centre for Capacity-building and the Transfer of Technology in Asia and the Pacific (BCRC Beijing/SCRCAP) and the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS) Secretariat hosted a workshop on updating Stockholm Convention National Implementation Plans (NIPs), including updating and revising dioxin and furan (PCDD/PDCF) inventories.

According to BCRC Beijing/SCRCAP, the meeting was attended by 33 participants from the following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

The workshop, held from 26-29 August 2013, in Beijing, China, aimed to enhance participants’ understanding of obligations under the Stockholm Convention to update NIPs, and ensure effective use of the guidance documents and other training tools. The meeting also focused on improving participants’ knowledge of the ‘new POPs,’ added to the Stockholm Convention in 2009 and 2011.

The Stockholm Convention initially classified 12 POPs: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans. The Convention requires Parties 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, Convention Parties 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. [BCRC Press Release] [BCRC Beijing Website]