Issue
Mercury is a natural element that cannot be destroyed nor converted into another substance. Strategies to decrease the production, use, import, and export of mercury must be accompanied by the environmentally sound and secure short and long-term storage and disposal of mercury.
Supply sources and export/import controls are main instruments to reduce supply. Transparency of trade is also essential for future success in limiting global supply. Primary mining is not required to meet global market demand.
More on mercury supply and storage
Objective
The objective of the Partnership Area is to identify and characterize relevant supply sources, the amount of mercury generated and the destination of the mercury obtained in order to contribute to minimizing and where feasible, eliminating mercury supply considering a hierarchy of sources, and retiring mercury from the market to environmentally sound management.
Strategy
In practice, the Partnership Area aims to contribute to:
- Eliminating production and export of mercury from relevant mercury supply sources;
- Determining how much mercury will become available from primary mining, decommissioning of mercury chlor-alkali plants and the quantity of by-product mercury generated from non-ferrous metal processing, gold mining as well as oil and gas production; and
- Collecting and disseminating information on options and technologies for storage or final disposal of excess mercury supply from the different sources.
Partnership Area Leads
- Judith Torres - Ministry of Environment, Uruguay
- Lilian Corra - International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE)
