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No mercy for mercury
Indonesia has a moral obligation to ensure that the Bali Declaration will be able to spur stronger international cooperation in the fight against illegal mercury trade.
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Two miners pan for gold along a stream near Korowai, Papua, on July 7, 2020 . Illegal mining has soared in the region in despite hazards including the risk of arrest and health damage from toxic mercury used at many makeshift mining sites. (AFP/ Efert Abubar )
T
he onus is now on Indonesia, which hosted the fourth Conference of Parties (COP4) on the Minamata Convention on Mercury over the weekend, to lead by example and walk the talk in further phasing out mercury following the conclusion of the international event.
Delegations from across the world gathered in Nusa Dua, Bali, where the second segment of the COP4 was held last week, to review the proposed expansion of products and manufacturing processes to be phased out under the convention, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention.
The convention, which was signed in 2013 and entered into force four years later, seeks to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury. Currently, 137 countries are parties to the Minamata Convention, which was named after a city in Japan whose citizens suffered from severe mercury poisoning in the middle of the 20th century.
While mercury is a naturally occurring element, heavy or prolonged exposure to the element may have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, according to the World Health Organization.
After days of intense discussions, the parties agreed at the end of the conference on Saturday to extend the “blacklist” with 10 new mercury-added products that will be phased out in the coming years. They include compact fluorescent lamps as well as photograph film and paper.
The COP4 also served as the backdrop for Indonesia to announce the Bali Declaration on Combatting the Illegal Trade in Mercury, which was unanimously endorsed by the parties. The nonbinding declaration seeks to strengthen international cooperation and information sharing to combat the illegal mercury trade and will serve to complement the Minamata Convention.
On evaluating the effectiveness of the convention to fulfil its goals, the parties have agreed on a framework based on inclusive and transparent processes, with an international scientific group established to set parameters necessary to evaluate the progress of the convention in reaching its goals.
The Indonesian government, which ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2017, can reflect on some of its achievements as the COP4 host and ensure its leadership in phasing out the use of mercury will not stop after its presidency ends.
To quote Indonesia’s head of delegation at COP4, Muhsin Syihab, Indonesia has a “moral obligation” to ensure that the Bali Declaration will be able to spur stronger international cooperation in the fight against the illegal mercury trade, which is associated with the element’s use in small-scale gold mining.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry data last year estimated that 13.94-192.53 tons of mercury is used annually across the country.
We call on the government to immediately revise its 2019 national action plan on the reduction and phasing out of mercury. Following the endorsement of the Bali Declaration, the government should also ensure that it provides the means for illegal gold miners in the country to transition away from such environmentally hazardous work.
We hope that Romania, the president of COP5, will further advance the discussions on some issues that the parties failed to resolve in the just-concluded conference.
