Activities and projects

UNEP

UN Environment Programme Projects

Global Mercury Monitoring

Responding to the need for further guidance, UN Environment, in collaboration with partners and with financial support from the GEF, has been implementing the project “Develop a plan for global monitoring of Human exposure to and environmental concentration of Mercury”. Read more

Global Mercury Assessment 2018

This update to the Global Mercury Assessment 2013 provides the most recent information available for the worldwide emissions to air, releases to water, and transport of mercury in atmospheric and aquatic environments. Read more

Mercury Inventory Pilot Project

To support country efforts in assessing their own situation with regard to mercury pollution and identifying possible ways of dealing with any adverse impacts, UNEP has developed the Toolkit for Identification and Quantification of Mercury Releases. Read more

Partners projects

 The Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS)

The Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) is a first attempt to conduct worldwide measurements of mercury from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The GMOS is a five year project (2010-2015) funded by the European Commission, leaded by the Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research of the National Research Council of Italy. The Project aims to establish a worldwide observation system for the measurement of atmospheric mercury in ambient air and precipitation samples, in the marine environment as well as in the lower - upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Read more

 UNECE-HTAP Task Force, WG on Hg

Italy is Leading the Working Group on Mercury. The major goals of this WG was to perform a modeling intercomparison for assessing the effectiveness of emission reduction measures and an assessment of the relative contribution of natural vs. anthropogenic sources on hemispheric and global scales. Results have been published in the TF HTAP Report, Part B: Mercury, published in 2010. Read more

Polar Research Program

As part of the Italian Polar Research Programme (PNRA) Italy performed (2012-2014) an intensive campaigns in Ny-Alesund on the Svalbard Islands at the Italian research site and at DOME-C in Antarctica (Italian-French bi-lateral program). The aim of this project is to investigate on mercury depletion mechanisms that affect the transfer of mercury from the atmosphere to surface snow in both polar areas. Read more