To enable Parties to the Convention to take measures to reduce or eliminate releases of POPs from intentional production and use, for which alternatives do not exist yet or are not readily available, the Convention allows Parties to register specific exemptions for a specific period of time. Annexes A and B to the Convention describe specific exemptions, as well as acceptable purposes, that are available with respect to the relevant POPs.
Exemptions and acceptable purposes give Parties the time that may be needed to adapt and take the necessary measures required by the Convention, in order to reduce or eliminate releases of POPs. This could be through finding alternatives, phase out of uses of POPs or other measures etc. This is a dynamic issue, with numerous decisions related to exemptions and acceptable purposes having been adopted by the Conference of the Parties.
Parties need to register in order to benefit from the Convention’s provisions on specific exemptions listed in Annexes A or B. These specific exemptions have a limited timeframe and shall expire five (5) years after the date of entry into force of the Convention with respect to that particular chemical, unless an earlier date is indicated in the Register by the Party or an extension is granted by the Conference of the Parties.
Parties may register for acceptable purposes listed in Annex B. Registers have been established for acceptable purposes relating to DDT and PFOS, its salts and PFOS-F.
The Convention also allows notification of POPs in articles in use, i.e. for chemicals occurring as constituents of articles manufactured or already in use before or on the date of entry into force of the obligation with respect to these chemicals. Similarly, Parties may register production and use of quantities of chemicals listed in annexes A and B as closed-system site-limited intermediates.
Further information on the procedures to register for specific exemptions and acceptable purposes; as well as to notify of articles in use and closed-system site-limited intermediates are accessible from the Procedures section.