Gothenburg Protocol

GOTHENBURG PROTOCOL

By Anton Antonio

January 11, 2016

“The 1999 Gothenburg Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone (known as the Multi-effect Protocol or the Gothenburg Protocol) is a multi-pollutant protocol designated to reduce acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone by setting emissions ceilings for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and ammonia to be met by 2010.  As of August 2014, the Protocol had been ratified by 26 parties, which includes 25 states and the European Union.  The Protocol is part of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.  The Convention is an international agreement to protect human health and the natural environment from air pollution by control and reduction of air pollution, including long-range transboundary air pollution.  The geographic scope of the Protocol includes Europe, North America and countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA).  On May 4, 2012, at a meeting at the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Parties to the Gothenburg Protocol agreed on a substantial number of revisions, most important are the inclusion of commitments of the Parties to further reduce their emissions until 2020.  These amendments now need to be ratified by Parties in order to make them binding.  Because pollutants can be carries many hundreds of kilometers by winds, pollutants emitted in one country may be deposited in other countries.  Deposition of pollutants in a country can far exceed the amount of such pollution produced domestically due to pollution arriving from one or more upwind countries.  In 1976, the environment ministers from the Nordic countries proposed a European convention on transboundary air pollution that emphasized sulphur compounds (Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP)).  After negotiations, 34 countries and the European Commission signed this Convention in 1979 in Geneva.  The convention came into force in 1983, and has now been ratified by 47 European countries, two North American countries (Canada and the United States) and Armenia.  The CLRTAP now includes eight protocols that identify specific obligations to be taken by the Parties.  The Gothenburg Protocol was signed on 30 November 1999 in Gothenburg, Sweden, to support the CLRTAP.  The Gothenburg Protocol entered into force on 17 May 2005.”  (Wikipedia)

ASEAN has already adopted a multilateral accord called the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.  This is a fair start but it can also be expanded to a multi-pollutant protocol designated to reduce acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone by setting emissions ceilings for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and ammonia.  The ASEAN Integration is a good opportunity to adopt an agreement in the mould of the Gothenburg Protocol.

Thoughts to promote positive action…

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REFERENCES:

Wikipedia, (2016).  “Multi-effect Protocol”.  Retrieved on January 11, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-effect_Protocol

Antonio, A.C., (2015). “ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution”.  Retrieved on January 6, 2016 from http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2015/12/asean-agreement-on-transboundary-haze.html