Regional capacity-building workshop on the BAT/BEP guidelines and the ESM of POPs wastes and PCBs for Arabic-speaking countries
Background
To minimize releases of persistent organic pollutants from unintentional production, Parties shall promote in some cases and require in others the use of best available techniques and promote application of best environmental practices. When applying best available techniques and best environmental practices Parties should take into consideration the guidelines on best available techniques and best environmental practices developed under the Stockholm Convention and adopted by decision SC-3/5 of the Conference of the Parties. In accordance with decisions SC-1/20, SC-3/5 and SC-4/6 the Secretariat is undertaking awareness raising activities on the guidelines at regional and sub-regional levels to promote their understanding and use.
In its decisions SC-3/7 and SC-4/8, the Parties to the Stockholm Convention requested the Secretariat to undertake training and other capacity building activities to assist developing countries and countries with economies in transition in implementing the Basel Convention technical guidelines on POPs waste. In response to this request, the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention has developed an electronic training tool on the POPs wastes guidelines and provides direct assistance to Parties through regional workshops on the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of PCBs and POPs waste.
Workshop Objectives
The workshop aimed at:
- Clarifying participants’ understanding of the obligations pertaining to unintentional releases of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and of the guidelines on best available techniques (BAT) and best environmental practices (BEP);
- Clarifying participants’ understanding of the obligations pertaining to POPs wastes and to polychlorobyphenyls (PCBs) and on the concepts, principles and standards for the environmentally sound management (ESM) of PCBs and POPs;
- Exchanging experience and lessons learned among the participants and relevant stakeholders on unintentional releases of POPs, PCBs and POPS wastes, including transfer of technologies and knowledge;
- Sharing feedback on the experience gained in using the various guidelines and training tools as well as on their usefulness.
Participants
The capacity-building workshop targeted two national experts on the BAT and BEP and ESM of PCBs and POPs wastes respectively from each of the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.