15 February 2013: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Mercury Partnership (GMP) has released a report on its progress from July 2010-June 2012. The report includes an assessment of the GMP’s overall progress, an assessment of its effectiveness, and a section on the future of the GMP.

The report indicates that the GMP has been growing steadily and now has 111 official partners, including 24 Governments, five intergovernmental organizations, 44 NGOs, and 38 others. There are now seven partnership areas: artisanal and small scale gold mining; mercury cell chlor-alkali production; mercury air transport and fate research; mercury in products; mercury releases from coal combustion; mercury waste management; mercury supply and storage; and mercury releases from cement industry.

The report notes the difficultly in assessing the overall effectiveness of the partnership areas, due to the lack of information and available resources for assessing activities. To increase the GMP’s effectiveness, the report recommends improvement in specific areas including: communicating; expanding the sphere of influence of the partnership areas; encouraging partnership areas to use the web-site for continued and increased outreach to partners and stakeholders; improving the telecommunications platform to better support the participation of developing countries; promoting efficiency; and fundraising.

The report also reflects on the potential role of the GMP once a legally binding instrument on mercury comes into force. The report notes the value in the GMP continuing its work, and underscores its potential role in: developing and updating inventories; preparing guidance documents; researching, demonstrating and promoting techniques to reduce mercury use and release; and supporting and enhancing the performance capabilities of parties and other stakeholders through capacity building. [UNEP GMP Website]