Mercury Waste Management - BRS COPs 2023 side event

Co-organized by the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, Burkina Faso, Switzerland, the Secretariat of BRS Conventions and UNEP Global Mercury Partnership, this event addressed the challenges faced by developing countries in managing and disposing of mercury waste in an environmentally sound manner. The speakers presented the recent development on mercury waste including the mercury waste thresholds under the Minamata Convention and the update to the technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management under the Basel Convention, and discussed ways to overcome the capacity gap that developing countries face.

The event took place at the venue of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions at the Geneva International Conference Center on Tuesday 9 May.The event was broadcasted on WebEx to allow for remote participation.

PROGRAMME

Opening remarks:

• Monika Stankiewicz, Executive Secretary of the Minamata Convention
• Roger Baro, Burkina Faso
• Carlos Martin-Novella, Deputy Executive Secretary of the BRS Conventions
• Felix Wertli, Switzerland
• Misuzu Asari, Global Mercury Partnership

Mercury waste thresholds – report from the expert group under the Minamata Convention

• Eisaku Toda, Secretariat of the Minamata Convention

Technical Guidelines for Environmentally Sound Management

• Kaoru Oka, former member of the Small Intersessional Working Group on mercury waste (online)

Fact sheets on mercury waste management

• Nicolas Humez, UNEP Global Mercury Partnership

Mercury waste management in developing countries – Challenges and Best Practices

• Pierre Hennebert, France (online)
• Roger Baro, Burkina Faso
• Christopher Kanema, Zambia
• Shahriar Hossein, Environment and Social Development Organization
• Rachel Kamande, Global Campaign Lead – Clean Lighting Coalition

Panel discussion Moderated by Eisaku Toda