§ Mr. ArbuthnotTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environmnent what progress has been made in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on a protocol controlling emissions of volatile organic compounds; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. TrippierNegotiation of a protocol to the 1979 convention on long-range transboundary air pollution, which would control the emissions of volatile organic compounds—VOCs—or their transboundary fluxes, has now been successfully completed and the United Kingdom today became one of the first signatories to the protocol.
VOCs are major precursors of ground level azone, a pollutant which can affect human health and damage crops and trees. Ground level ozone is an international problem, and some of the worst ozone episodes in the United Kingdom have significant contributions of continental origin. It therefore needs to be tackled by international agreement.
The new protocol is the first international commitment to VOC abatement across the board. It obliges most parties to secure a 30 per cent. overall reduction in their VOC emissions between 1988 and 1999. Other basic obligations include requirements, two years after the protocol enters into force, to apply national or international emission standards to new sources of VOCs, taking account of guidance on control technologies given in the protocol; to apply national or international measures to products that contain solvents and promote the use of products with low or nil content; and to foster public participation in VOC emission control.
The United Kingdom is already taking a number of steps which will help it to comply with the protocol, which represents an important step forward in international action to improve the quality of our environment. I am arranging for a copy of the protocol to be placed in the Library of the House.