The listing of new persistent organic pollutants in the stockholm convention: Its burden on developing countries

Abstract

The Stockholm convention aims to protect the environment and human health by eliminating or restricting the production, use, and distribution of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). With an initial focus on twelve POPs, the list has been expanding over the years, with 28 POPs listed in the annexes of the convention as of December 2019. Currently, there are new substances under assessment for enlistment as POPs in the Stockholm convention. The addition of new POPs has, however, not kept its pace with monitoring capacity, management of stockpiles and wastes, remediation of contaminated sites, and financial resources disbursed to implement POPs related activities, especially in developing countries. Here, the authors suggest strengthening the capacity of laboratories in developing countries to enable them to test for legacy and new POPs. Most developing countries lack the infrastructure and know-how to manage POPs stockpiles and wastes. It is, therefore, necessary to establish regional POPs decontamination and destruction facilities to help some of those developing countries manage their POP stockpiles and wastes. It is also important to improve the capacity and competence in managing and remediating POPs contaminated sites, since most of them are poorly managed across developing countries. Besides, there is a need for more POPs mitigation and abatement funding schemes in developing countries, as most cannot generate enough domestic funds to implement POPs projects and as such are struggling to meet their obligations under the convention.