NAIROBI, Kenya, February 20, 2009 (ENS) – Environment officials from more than 140 countries today agreed to craft the world’s first treaty to control emissions of mercury, a toxic heavy metal that poses serious risks to human health and the environment. They agreed to voluntarily limit mercury at once, even before a treaty is finalized.

At the close of the UN Environment Programme’s annual Governing Council and Global Ministerial Environment Forum, governments unanimously decided to begin negotiations on an international mercury treaty to deal with worldwide emissions and discharges of the neurotoxin that threatens the health of hundreds of millions of people.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “Only a few weeks ago nations remained divided on how to deal with this major public health threat which touches everyone in every country of the world. Today we are united on the need for a legally binding instrument and immediate action towards a transition to a low-mercury world.”

U.S. delegate Daniel Fantozzi (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

An indicator of that unity came on Monday during the Governing Council’s opening session when the Obama administration reversed the former U.S. position on limiting mercury pollution. Led by Daniel Fantozzi, director of the Office of Environmental Policy, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State, the delegation endorsed negotiations for the new global mercury treaty.

The environment officials attending the meeting agreed to take accelerated action under a voluntary Global Mercury Partnership even before the treaty is finalized because they view mercury exposure as a great risk to human health and the environment.

Under the voluntary partnership, governments will reducing the supply of mercury from primary mining of the heavy metal and increase their capacity to safely store stockpiled mercury.

They agreed to undertake projects that will reduce the use of mercury in artisanal gold mining where an estimated 10 million miners and their families are exposed.

Typically, gravel and mud are combined with liquid mercury, which binds to gold particles in the mix. Then the mercury-gold amalgam is heated to extract the gold. The mercury is vaporized and inhaled by the miners, and it travels far and wide to settle on bodies of water where it moves up the food chain into fish, causing health problems when the fish are eaten.

Mercury is used to extract gold by an artisanal miner in Ghana. (Photo courtesy Government of Ghana)

On the island of Mindanao, Philippines 70 percent of gold miners may have chronic mercury poisoning, and miners in Brazil, Venezuela, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Ghana and Zimbabwe are suffering from poisoning or exposure. Long-abandoned North American gold mines are an ongoing source of mercury.

The wider economic arguments are compelling, says Steiner. UNEP estimates that every kilogram of mercury taken out of the environment can trigger up to $12,500 worth of social, environmental and human health benefits.

Before a treaty is even negotiated, governments agreed to reduce mercury in products such as thermometers and high-intensity discharge lamps as well as cutting mercury use in some kinds of paper-making and plastics production.

About one-third of the 6,000 metric tonnes of toxic mercury entering the environment annually is emitted by coal-fired power stations and coal fires in homes. Artisanal gold mining is the second-greatest source of mercury pollution in the world, after the burning of fossil fuels.

The World Health Organization says there is no safe limit of mercury exposure, and the ministers were informed that every one of them and everyone else alive today has some level of mercury in their bodies.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner (Photo courtesy ENB)

“UNEP has, for some seven years, coordinated and contributed to an intense scientific and policy debate on how best to deal with the issue of mercury,” said Steiner. Today the world’s environment ministers, armed with the full facts and full choices, decided the time for talking was over – the time for action on this pollution is now.”

Meanwhile there is evidence that far from declining, mercury pollution may be on the rise in part as a result of increased coal-burning in Asia.

“I believe this will be a major, confidence-building boost for not only the chemicals and health agenda but right across the environmental challenges of our time from biodiversity loss to climate change,” he said.

Environment ministers also backed a decision requesting UNEP to spearhead a mission to Gaza to assess the environmental impacts of recent hostilities and to carry out an assessment of the costs of rehabilitating and restoring environmental damage there. The UNEP team will be deployed “immediately” after a conference March 2 in Cairo, Egypt, on the reconstruction of Gaza.

Many of the ministers meeting this week believe that investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency alongside investments in natural or nature-based assets such as forests and freshwaters can power economies back to health, said Oliver Dulic, Serbia’s minister of the environment, who served as president of the Governing Council and Global Ministerial Environment Forum.

Serbian Environment Minister Oliver Dulic presided over the UNEP annual meeting. (Photo courtesy ENB)

“Moving to a green economy is overwhelmingly recognized as a means to deliver multiple benefits for the international community and all nations in addressing food, energy, water security and climate change,” said Dulic.

“Ministers of the environment must be ministers for sustained economic success. Creating a green economy goes hand-in-hand with sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals,” he said.

Steiner agreed, saying, “Ministers from North and South here in Nairobi, through words and through deeds, have signaled that investing in the environment and greening economies is one of the keys to unlocking innovation, job creation, recovery and healthier and more sustainable world – not just on the question of mercury but right across sectors and societies.”

The UNEP chief said this attitude demonstrated by the ministers’ decision to significantly increase UNEP’s budget at a time of financial and economic crisis.

Governments also signaled their determination to stem biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystems. Today they called on UNEP to hold an international meeting this year to examine the pros and cons of establishing an “intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services” and an assessment on the scientific gaps in current knowledge.

Ecosystems are estimated to provide services worth many trillions of dollars, from carbon storage by forests to the coastal defense value of coral reefs.

Wangari Maathai addresses the UNEP closing session. (Photo courtesy ENB)

The UNEP executive director will report on the progress at the special session on biodiversity at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in 2010.

Governments also decided to form a group of ministers from both developed and developing countries to improve the way the world’s environmental architecture is run. They aim to streamline and boost the ability of the global community to tackle persistent and emerging environmental challenges.

The environment ministers also voted to support Africa in the continent’s struggle to mitigate and adapt to climate change, including work with the UN Economic Commission for Africa to establish a climate center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Addressing the closing plenary session today, 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya called on delegates to become “soldiers for the environment.”

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LONDON, UK, December 29, 2008 (ENS) – By next spring, some of Britain’s largest supermarket chains will halve the number of plastic and paper bags they supply to customers as compared with a 2006 baseline under an agreement reached last week between the government and the retailers.

The 50 percent cut was set by British Environment Minister Jane Kennedy and the British Retail Consortium. The agreement covers seven of Britain’s major supermarket chains – Asda, the CO-OP, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, Tesco, and Waitrose.

Plastic carrier bags are on their way
out. (Photo by Evissa)

The agreement to reduce the volume of carrier bags by 50 percent against 2006 levels, covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish Executive has a similar agreement with retailers in Scotland.

In 2006, around 13 billion bags were used by consumers in the UK. The number of bags saved by spring 2009 through this agreement would fill 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools, environment officials calculate.

Environment Minister Kennedy said, “This is a bold commitment which will result in around five billion fewer bags being handed out. Supermarkets have already taken some imaginative steps to help us use fewer carrier bags and other high street retailers should look to them for inspiration. Of course, we can all play our part to reduce the number of carrier bags on our high streets and the government will work closely with the BRC on a campaign to help us all to do so.”

BRC Director General Stephen Robertson said, “Together with other environmental initiatives, supermarkets are meeting their existing commitment to reduce the environmental impact of bags by 25 percent. They’re now volunteering an ambitious new target to help customers halve bag use by next spring.”

“Supermarkets have been so successful in this by taking customers with them in ways they find acceptable, by encouraging and rewarding,” Robertson said.

“This new partnership with the government, underpinned by action across the retail sector, offers exciting new opportunities to help our customers across the UK to do the right thing,” he said. “It’s one more step towards reducing waste and environmental impact.”

Cloth bags are gaining acceptance.
(Photo courtesy Tesco)

Liz Goodwin, CEO of the government-funded not-for-profit Waste & Resources Action Programme, said, “The word from stores is that many more of us are re-using our bags. That is something we are working to encourage and WRAP will be playing its full part in this initiative.”

Progress on the agreement will be monitored by WRAP and will be reviewed in the summer of 2010.

“This agreement should act as a spur to all of us to remember to take our bags with us when shopping,” said Goodwin. “Retailers and governments are now clearly working together to help all of us reduce the number of bags we use. The aim, which is at the core of WRAP’s work, is a world which uses resources more efficiently.”

The agreement states that even fewer carrier bags will be given out in the future, saying, “The governments and the BRC share an aspiration to go further towards a reduction of 70 percent over the longer term and, supported by leading retailers, commit to joint efforts on consumer engagement as crucial to making this a reality.”

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BOSTON, Massachusetts, April 28, 2008 (ENS) – The Charles River now has the best water quality for boating and swimming since the intensive Clean Charles Initiative began in 1995, federal and state environment officials said Friday. However, there still is growing concern about elevated levels of nutrients from stormwater runoff, especially phosphorus.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the lower Charles River its highest grade ever – a B++. The unusual grade reflects coordinated efforts by government and local groups that have succeeded in reducing bacteria levels to restore the river to ecological health.

The river was the focus of activity this weekend as volunteers Saturday participated in the annual spring clean up event, and paddlers took part in the the “Run of the Charles” canoe and kayak race on Sunday.

“We can all be very proud that our hard work to reduce bacteria levels in the Charles River is paying off,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office.

“We still have work to do – especially regarding nutrients from stormwater pollution – to solve problems including the algae blooms that have occurred the past several summers,” Varney said.

High levels of phosphorus in the past several years have caused the river to turn a bright shade of blue-green during summer algae blooms. The color is caused by blooms of cyanobacteria, which can be harmful to both people and pets.

Last October, EPA and the state began a process to limit phosphorus entering the Charles River by establishing a new Total Maximum Daily Load, TMDL, for discharges of phosphorus into the lower Charles River. A TMDL determines how much of a pollutant can be put into a body of water before it has harmful effects.

Kayaks lined up to run the Charles River,
2007. (Photo courtesy CRWA)

EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, or MassDEP, developed and approved the new limits using extensive data collected in the Charles over several years.

“The Charles River is one of our signature waterways and it is clear that more than a decade of focus and attention – from the full spectrum of community organizations, environmental groups, businesses, institutions, municipalities and state and federal agencies – has begun to turn the tide toward the promise of a clean, fishable and swimmable river,” said Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles.

“The challenge before us is to maintain the momentum and finish the job,” said Bowles, “and learn from our lessons in the Charles and spread them to the other impaired watersheds of the Commonwealth.”

The Charles River is 80 miles long and flows through 23 towns and cities in eastern Massachusetts, beginning at Echo Lake in Hopkinton and ending in the Boston Harbor.

Among the sources of phosphorus to the river are impermeable surfaces such as roadways, rooftops and parking lots where phosphorus and other nutrients collect. Rainfall scours pollutants from these surfaces and the resulting stormwater flows into the Charles.

Both EPA and MassDEP are developing approaches that would limit the discharge of phosphorus in order to tackle the algae problem in the River.

This year’s B++ grade is based on the number of days the river met state boating and swimming standards on days that samples were taken during the previous calendar year, and is based on measurements of bacteria levels.

For 2007, the Charles met boating standards 100 percent of the time, and swimming standards 63 percent of the time, according to data collected by the Charles River Watershed Association between Watertown Dam and Boston Harbor.

The Charles has improved dramatically from the launch of EPA’s Charles River Initiative in 1995, when the river received a D for meeting boating standards only 39 percent of the time and swimming standards just 19 percent of the time.

Cleanup work by local municipalities and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, MWRA, that started years ago continues to reduce the flow of contamination into the Charles.

Over the last year, MWRA has finished the design of a 57 inch pipe that will stretch from Brookline to Cambridge. This will improve flow of sanitary wastes to Deer Island for treatment and will reduce the number of overflows that will discharge to the Charles in heavy rains.

In addition, during the last year the city of Cambridge closed two of its combined sewer overflows that discharged mixed stormwater and sanitary waste during large storms.

“Over the last decade, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has completed a number of projects to control combined sewer overflows to the Charles,” said MWRA executive director Frederick Laskey.

“To date, overflows have been reduced by over 90 percent in a typical year – and there’s more to come. We have three more projects in the works that, when completed, will achieve a 99 percent reduction in CSO discharges.”

Varney said the involvement of ordinary citizen volunteers who have patrolled and cleaned the Charles for years has been critical to the restoration of the river.

“Though it seems progress has been slow for a few years, our efforts to analyze the Charles and the impacts of urbanization have accelerated, said Bob Zimmerman, executive director of the Charles River Watershed Association.

“That work has been revealing,” he said. “We are at a new high in understanding the sorts of regulatory changes and water infrastructure changes necessary to fully restore the river, sustain our drinking water supplies, reduce energy demand, and improve the quality of our lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan region.”

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