UNEP Global Partnershipon

Mercury Air Transport and Fate Research

- Canadian Contribution -

Grace HowlandEnvironment Canada, Chemicals

Management DivisionOct 10-11, 2007

Grace.Howland@ec.gc.ca

Domestic Policy

• Canadian Environmental Protection Act• Clean Air Regulatory Agenda (CARA): recent regulatory

agenda includes reducing mercury emissions and ambient mercury concentrations in air

– science component to measure efficacy

International Activities

• UNEP global mercury programme• Canada/US Binational Toxics Strategy• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) –

Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North American Regional Action Plan (NARAP) on mercury

• New England Governors- Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG-ECP) Mercury Action Plan.

• Arctic Action Plan on Mercury• Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP)• UNECE Heavy Metals Protocol

International Activities (continued)

• UNEP air transport and fate research partnership– member of the UNEP F&T partnership– hosted the F&T partnership meeting – Jan 2007– contributors to UNEP emissions report– support to review UNEP emissions report– participate in UNEP F&T Partnership workshop in April 2008

• Opportunity : Canada will host the 2012 Global Mercury Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia

– UNEP F&T Partnership may wish to hold a special session toward updating related partnership issues (e.g. F&T report)

Canadian mercury emissions

• Environment Canada maintains a comprehensive anthropogenic Hg emissions inventory

• Hg emissions inventories from 1990 to 2005 are reported under the National Pollution Release Inventory (NPRI) using accepted emissions estimation techniques similar or comparable to those of the USEPA

NPRI website: http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/npri/npri_home_e.cfm

• Canada’s current annual Hg emissions are about 6 tonnes

Emissions (continued)

• Canadian mercury emission data is available from Environment Canada, through the UN ECE’s website and cited in many publications.

• Environment Canada plans to officially publish Hg emissions in April 2008.

• Plans are in place to develop a repository for global Hg emissions under the auspices of the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants.

Science

• National program to measure atmospheric mercury through the Canadian Atmospheric Measurement Network (CAMNet).

• CAMNet measures mercury in air and precipitation, estimates wet deposition and assesses Hg spatial and temporal trends in Canada.

• Canadian atmospheric mercury data are available through the National Atmospheric Chemistry (NatChem) database and the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) web sites:

NatChem website: http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/NAtChem/index_e.htmlMDN website: http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/mdn/

Focus on the Arctic

• research to understand and quantify mercury depletion events in the Arctic.

• partner in the Arctic Mercury Assessment Program (AMAP) to develop a circumpolar Hg measurement network and synthesize the knowledge of mercury processes and fate in the Arctic.

• enhancing mercury measurement and research programs under the International Polar Year (IPY) to further the understanding transport and fate in the Arctic and sub- Arctic regions.

Mercury Research

• expanded efforts to examine mercury speciation (reactive gaseous mercury and particulate mercury) and development of a dry deposition network (with US).

• research on air-surface exchange of mercury in natural and disturbed marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments.

• work with academic partners to improve knowledge on mercury biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Modeling

• Environment Canada participates on domestic and international scales to understand mercury emissions, transport and fate using atmospheric mercury modeling techniques (GRAHM) through programs such as UNECE-HTAP Task Force.

• Atmospheric mercury modeling is directed at understanding domestic, regional and global source receptor relationships; understanding impacts of changes in emission levels and; implications of changes in economic and policy related issues.

THANK YOU