Amand_Speech_ MOP3_ AC

Excellences,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
As Chair of the WG on PRTRs, it is a great honour to be able to speak to you today and, on behalf of
the secretariat and the delegates involved in the WG, I would like to thank the Government of Latvia
and through you the WGP for having agreed to organise this special session.
I won’t comeback on the activity report that I presented on Wednesday excepted to say that despite the
ratification pace that does not enable yet the entry into force of the Protocol, the WG has made
significant progress towards it and the preparation of MOP1, showing its willingness to each
compromise as well as to involve all stakeholders, including the industry where appropriate, in the
implementation of the Protocol.
The Protocol is a major outcome of the Aarhus Convention as regards in particular the pillar on access
to information.
It is a powerful engine for ensuring to the public its right to better know about the impact of industrial
activities on local and global environment, also to help authorities and industries to take decisions and
assess them.
In particular, this instrument has enabled the EU to implement the E-PRTR through a dedicated
Regulation.
In addition, the Protocol addresses industrial emissions of greenhouse gases as well as persistent
organic pollutants. It can so serves as one of the useful instruments towards implementation of the UN
framework climate change Convention and the Stockholm Convention.
One important step towards the implementation of the Protocol is the official publication of the
Guidance on implementation of the Protocol on PRTRs this week. Hard copies have been made
available here in Riga and of course it is available on the web.
This guidance addresses legal as well as technical issues for the interpretation of the Protocol.
It is the result of the intense exchange of information between experts and delegates within the WG.
It also take into account similar works done earlier under the auspices of the OECD and the EU.
It’s now up to the Parties and Signatories to use this manual in order to implement a transparent and
useful PRTR system in their countries.
As Chair of the OECD TF on PRTRs, I would also like to underline the importance and usefulness of
such forum that involve since 1999, experts from european countries plus USA, Canada, Mexico,
Canada, Japan and Australia as well the European Commission, the European Environment Agency,
the North American Commission for Environmental cooperation and the international organisations
like UNECE, UNITAR and UNEP.
Those experts dealing day by day with the implementation of PRTRs, have once a year the
opportunity to exchange their experience and continue to develop technical guidance documents.
The establishment of the web portal prtr.net is one of the outcomes of such cooperation.
La mise en oeuvre du Protocole necessite egalement le renforcement des capacites tant au niveau
national qu’international, via une cooperation et une assistance adequate entre les Parties. Ceci nous
est rappele par les articles 15 et 16 du Protocole.
Au niveau de l’ONU/CEE, le programme cadre de renforcement des capacites de la Convention
consacre une part significative a la promotion du Protocole.
Toutefois, le GT PRTR a rapidement constate la necessite d’une synergie avec les pays et organismes
internationaux , déjà impliques depuis de nombreuses annees dans la mise en oeuvre de ces inventaires
et de programmes d’assistance. C’est pourquoi le GT PRTR a charge le secretariat de la Convention
d’etablir et de tenir a jour une liste des activites specifiques d’assistance existantes en matiere de
PRTR et ce, en collaboration avec d’autres organismes impliques, entre autre UNEP, UNITAR, la
Commission europeenne, OCDE, OSCE, Grid Arendal, REC, Ecoforum et d’autres pays ou ONG.
Ce document, commumement appele ‘ la matrice’ a pour but de donner une vue d’ensemble de ces
activites et initiatives, realisees ou en cours, et ce, afin d’eviter les redondances et les projets paralleles
ou concurrents.
Afin de renforcer cette cooperation entre organismes, un groupe international de coordination PRTR a
vu le jour en 2005. Ce groupe , dont le secretariat est assure par le secretariat de la Convention, permet
annuellement a ces organismes et principaux pays impliques dans le renforcement des capacities
notamment a destination des pays en voie de developpemen et a economie en transition, d’echanger
leur vues et si possible de coordonner de maniere informelle leurs actions.
De plus, l’organe subsidiaire qui assurera le suivi du Protocole après la 1ere Reunion des Parties devra
se pencher sur la question d’un plan strategique long terme specifique, en s’inspirant de l’experience
acquise dans le cadre de la Convention pour le meme exercice.
Je concluerais cette intervention en vous soumettant 2 questions que le GT PRTR devra trancher dans
un proche avenir.
1) Les outils existants en matiere de renforcement des capacites et d’assistance permettent-ils de
repondre aux besoins des futures Parties au Protocole ?
2) Afin d’atteindre les objectifs du protocole tels que repris dans le preambule et l’article 1, est-il
necessaire de creer un mecanisme d’assistance supplementaire, distinct de celui de la
Convention ?
Je terminerais en vous remerciant pour votre attention et en vous donnant rendez vous a la 1ere
Reunion des Parties du Protocole PRTR.
Michel AMAND
Chair WG on PRTRs