UNEP/MC/COP.3/17 - Information in relation to emissions of mercury resulting from the open burning of waste

Note by the secretariat 1. At its first meeting, held in Geneva from 24 to 29 September 2017, the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury adopted decision MC-1/14 on mercury emissions related to the open burning of waste. In that decision, the Conference recognized that open burning of waste could be a significant source of mercury emissions that had not been quantified and that the guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices1 held that open burning of waste was considered bad environmental practice and should be discouraged. The Conference also invited parties and other interested entities and organizations to submit to the secretariat information on mercury emissions from open burning of waste and requested the secretariat to continue to compile information, particularly from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, including information from inventories and Minamata initial assessments, emission factors and actual measurements of emissions submitted by parties, and any relevant information developed by the conferences of the parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and to submit that information to the Conference of the Parties at its second meeting for its consideration of the need for further action.