§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to be party to a global, legally binding treaty to ban the most dangerous identified persistent organic pollutants. [25414]
§ Mr. ClappisonThe Washington global conference on the protection of the marine environment from land-based activities agreed in November 1995 that international action is needed to develop a global, legally binding instrument concerning certain persistent organic pollutants. The United Kingdom supported that conclusion and will work to take it forward through the intergovernmental forum on chemical safety. Our stance at the Commission on Sustainable Development will be based on that approach.
§ Mr. GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the most dangerous persistent organic pollutants that enter inland and coastal waters; and what action he intends to take in respect of the adoption of the United Nations environment programme programme of action on land-based sources of marine pollution. [25413]
§ Mr. ClappisonThe Washington global programme of action for the protection of the marine environment from land-based activities reflects generally the approaches adopted by the United Kingdom and other states bordering the north-east Atlantic. Pursuing our present policies will therefore lead to its implementation.
The global programme of action notes the need for a legally binding global instrument to address certain persistent organic pollutants or groups of such substances. On the basis of work under the convention on long-range transport of air pollution of the UN Economic Commission for Europe—UNECE/LRTAP—these are 587W identified as aldrin, dieldrin, DDT, endrin, chlordane, hexachlorobenzene, Mirex, toxaphene, heptachlor, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans.
The United Kingdom is supporting the negotiation of such an instrument through the intergovernmental forum on chemical safety.