Officers from three separate UN agencies reported on preparations for launch of two international projects holding promise for jump-starting Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the developing world, at an annual international meeting on PRTR capacity-building.
The International PRTR Coordinating Group meeting had been organized by the secretariat of the UNECE Aarhus Convention and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). It was hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris on 11 March 2008.
Experts from seven UNECE countries, Australia and Japan, as well as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNITAR and OECD exchanged views on the best ways of sharing information and coordinating capacity-building activities.
The Aarhus Convention Secretariat reviewed discussions on PRTR capacity-building under the European Commission-supported project on implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Central Asia. Four of five Central Asian republics' National Project Committees had requested inclusion of PRTR activities within the 1.5 million Euro TACIS project.
TACIS stands for the "Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States" programme of the European Commission.
UNEP presented information on the draft Global Environment Facility project on POPs [Persistent Organic Pollutants] monitoring, reporting and information dissemination using Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers. The GEF project would aim to implement and use PRTRs as a model for POPs monitoring under the Stockholm POPs Convention. The project would support the design of national PRTR systems in Ecuador, Peru, Thailand, Cambodia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, as well as assessment of a regional POPs reporting system using PRTR in five Central American countries.
A representative of Japan's Environment Ministry reported on his country's capacity-building project on monitoring and reporting on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the Kingdom of Thailand. The project is the first time Japan has undertaken to provide foreign assistance in support of national PRTR development. Japan launched its national PRTR in 2003.
The information highlighted the importance of coordinating PRTR capacity-building, to maximize the effecient use of donor resources and propel countries toward implementation of the Kiev Protocol on PRTRs. In the Central Asian region, Tajikistan is a Signatory to the Kiev Protocol on PRTRs.
Kazakhstan pledged to work toward accession of the Protocol on the ocassion of the second meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, which it hosted in Almaty, 25-27 May 2005.
