Use of MEAs in audit of waste

issues

International Center for Environment

Audit and Sustainable Development,

Jaipur

Session Learning Objectives

• Objective of the session

– To learn about Multilateral Environment Accords (MEAs) and

their implementation mechanisms

– To learn about MEAs related to Waste

– Approaches to audit of MEAs

– Discussion of 2 audit reports on MEAs

• The ultimate objective of this is to help participants plan

an environment audit on waste using MEAs

• Training method

• Exercise

• Presentation

Session Plan

• What are MEAs

• Introduction to major MEAs

– Helsinki Convention

– London/MARPOL

– Basel Convention (Bamako Convention & Waigani

Convention)

– Joint Convention

– Convention on Nuclear Safety

• Auditing MEAs

• Discussion of audits planned and conducted using

MEAs

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International awareness regarding waste

• At the 1992 Rio Conference, waste was made one of the

priorities of Agenda 21

- Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally,

nationally and locally and was adopted by more than 178

Governments at the UN Conference in Rio de Janeiro

• At the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable

Development in 2002, the focus was on

– Initiatives to accelerate the shift to sustainable consumption and

production reduction of resource degradation, pollution and

waste

International awareness regarding

waste

• Implementation plan adopted by the Summit

– "Prevent and minimize waste & maximize reuse, recycling &

use of environmentally friendly alternative materials

– all stakeholders to minimize adverse effects on the environment

and improve resource efficiency

– This would include actions at all levels to:

» Develop waste management systems, with the highest priority placed

on waste prevention and minimization, reuse and recycling, and

environmentally sound disposal facilities, including technology to

recapture the energy contained in waste

» Promote waste prevention and minimization by encouraging

production of reusable consumer goods and biodegradable products

MEAs

• Multilateral Environmental Agreements or “MEAs” are

one of the most prominent features that regulate the

process of global environment protection

• a broad term that relates to any of a number of legally

binding international instruments through which national

Governments commit to achieving specific

environmental goals

– agreements may take different forms such as “convention,”

“treaty,” “agreement,” “charter,” “final act,” “pact,” “accord,”

“covenant,”“protocol,” etc

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MEAs

• MEAs a subset of the universe of international

agreements

– What distinguishes them from other agreements is their focus

on environmental issues, their creation of binding international

law, and their inclusion of multiple countries

• Over the past few decades, the number and scope of

international environmental agreements have grown

rapidly

– UNEP identified over 280 agreements which are wholly

directed to environmental protection as of December 2009

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MEA entering into force

Adoption

Signature

Ratification

Entry into force

Accession

Withdrawal or denouncing

Implementing MEAs

• On-the-ground’ implementation done by Parties at the

national level through domestic legislative and

administrative arrangements

• Compliance mechanisms like

– empowering the MEA’s institutions (such as COP, secretariats and

other subsidiary bodies) to periodically assess and evaluate

compliance with the MEA and to consider measures aimed at

improving compliance;

– requiring Parties to report on, monitor and verify compliance;

– requiring Parties to undertake national implementation plans; and

– setting terms for mechanisms to address and remedy non-

compliance

Implementing MEAs

• Institutions for Implementation

– Can review overall implementation of obligations under MEAs &

examine specific difficulties of compliance/ consider measures

aimed at improving compliance

– At institutional level, the Conference of the Parties (COP)

represents the primary decision making body for a MEA

• Reporting, Monitoring and Verification

– Reporting: in common formats by nations, national Plans

– Monitoring: data can be collected to assess compliance

– Verification: could involve independent sources for corroborating

national data and information

Implementing MEAs

• National Implementation Plans (NIPs)

– Can indicate how a State will strive to reach its obligations

under an MEA

– Components can include identifying sources of non-

compliance (e.g., laws, institutions, lack of capacity, social

norms, public and private sector considerations, etc.), methods

for addressing these sources, monitoring implementation, and

identifying funding resources

• NIPs can also provide for the establishment of a

national implementation agency or organization that

works with the MEA Secretariat to promote

implementation.

• Compliance Mechanisms

– States can consider the inclusion of non-compliance

provisions in a multilateral environmental agreement, with a

view to assisting parties having compliance problems and

addressing individual cases of non-compliance, taking into

account the importance of tailoring compliance provisions

and mechanisms to the agreement’s specific obligations

• Non-compliance frequently the result of incapacity

rather than intentional disregard for an agreement’s

rules

MEAs– London Convention

• London convention on Prevention of Marine Pollution

by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1975

– Entered into force in 1975

– Objective: to prevent pollution of the sea by the dumping of waste

and other matter that is liable to create hazards to human health, to

harm living resources and marine life, to damage amenities or to

interfere with other legitimate uses of the sea

– Dumping: defined as the deliberate disposal at sea of wastes or other

matter from vessels, aircraft, platforms or other man-made

structures, as well as the deliberate disposal of these vessels or

platforms themselves

London Protocol

– Annexes list wastes which cannot be dumped and others for which a

special dumping permit is required

• In 1996, the ‘London Protocol’ was agreed to further

modernize the Convention and, eventually, replace it

– Under the Protocol all dumping is prohibited, except for possibly

acceptable wastes on the so-called "reverse list", contained in an

annex to the Protocol

– Protocol entered into force on 24 March 2006

– currently 38 Parties to the Protocol

– India has not ratified this treaty.

MEAs-- MARPOL

• The MARPOL Convention for the Prevention of

Pollution from Ships, 1978

– Main international convention covering prevention of

pollution of marine environment by ships from

operational or accidental causes

• Annex I Regulations for the Prevention of Pollution by Oil (entered into

force 2 October 1983)

• Annex II Regulations for the Control of Pollution by Noxious Liquid

Substances in Bulk (entered into force 2 October 1983)

• Annex III Prevention of Pollution by Harmful Substances Carried by Sea in

Packaged Form (entered into force 1 July 1992)

MEAs-- MARPOL

• Annex IV Prevention of Pollution by Sewage from

Ships (entered into force 27 September 2003)

• Annex V Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from

Ships (entered into force 31 December 1988)

• Annex VI Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships (entered into

force 19 May 2005)

• India is a party to the agreement

• Has specific laws, as for instance the Indian Merchant Shipping

Act, 1958, which gives effect to the international convention for

prevention of pollution of the sea by oil

MEAs– Basel Convention

• The overarching objective: protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes

• Scope of application covers a wide range of wastes defined as “hazardous wastes” based on their origin and/or composition and their characteristics

– Includes E waste– the largest growing waste stream across the world

• Drafted in light of dumping of wastes by developed countries into developing countries including old and discarded computers and other electronic products

• Has special significance to India in view of, among other things, the large ship-breaking industry on the west coast as also the flourishing Information and Telecommunication industry

• India ratified the Convention effective from 24th June, 1992.

MEAs– Basel Convention

• The provisions of the Convention center around the

following principal aims:

– reduction of hazardous waste generation and the promotion of

environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes, wherever

the place of disposal;

– the restriction of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes

except where it is perceived to be in accordance with the principles of

environmentally sound management; and

– a regulatory system applying to cases where transboundary

movements are permissible.

• Has links with regional hazardous waste regimes, in particular

– the 1991 Bamako Convention (which came into force in 1998)

– The 1995 Waigani Convention (which came into force in 2001)

Agreements regulating radioactive

waste

• Radioactive waste is in an exceptional position, can be

fatal if not handled properly

– No widely endorsed convention that explicitly

addresses the issue of nuclear waste.

• More states have ratified the general convention that

states precautionary principles regarding nuclear

management

Agreements regulating radioactive

waste

• Joint Convention

– The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and

on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management the first legal

instrument to address these issues directly on a global scale, Entered

into force on 18 June 2001

• Convention on Nuclear Safety

– Global agreement that was adopted in Vienna in 1994

– Aim is to legally commit participating states that operate land-based

nuclear power plants to maintain a high level of safety by setting

international benchmarks to which states would subscribe

Auditing MEAs

• If a country is a Party to an MEA

– Audit can consider

• whether government has developed sufficient and appropriate

domestic policy and procedures to meet commitments in the MEA

• Requires the auditor to find out what the commitments are

• How these commitments are implemented in the country’s

legislation

• What are the governance mechanisms

Auditing MEAs

• When domestic policy and procedures in place

– these are a good source of criteria for evaluating if they actually are

implemented and enforced

– Audit can consider whether the policy is implemented in the most

efficient, economic, and effective manner

– Can involve the assessment whether

• aims of the policy are met

• whether the domestic policy actually serves the purpose (and

commitments) of the MEA

• If periodic reporting required under an MEA

– reports can be validated

– Validating the reporting material provided to international bodies is

one way of drawing the legislature’s attention to meeting the

international commitments

• If a country is not a Party to an MEA

– then the MEA can still be a good source of audit criteria for the SAI

– Many agreements can be referred as a best practice or a benchmark

for better environmental governance

Auditing MEAs

Audit questions

• What are my country’s commitments related to a specific MEA?

• Is there domestic policy and legislation in place?

• Can the policy and legislation assure the compliance with these

commitments?

• Is the policy and related legislation actually implemented and

enforced?

• Is it implemented in the most economic, efficient and effective

manner?

• Does the policy implementation meet the commitments of the

MEA?

Audit questions

• Is my country providing sufficient, appropriate and timely

information/reports to the MEA secretariat?

• Is this information/report correct?

• Is this information reviewed by a national parliament?

Feasibility of carrying out audits of MEAs

Report

of the audit on the enforcement of Basel

Convention

• SAI of the Netherlands and it is carried out by a total of

eight audit institutions (the Netherlands, Bulgaria,

Hungary, Norway, Poland, Greece, Ireland and

Slovenia) during 2011-2012

• how the obligations, arising from Basel Accord, –

regulating and supervising the waste shipment within,

into and out of the European Community – are met and

whether the purpose of the regulation had been

reached

• Found that compliance to Basel was not completehttp://www.environmental-auditing.org/Portals/0/AuditFiles/Hungary_s_eng_EU-

regulations-on-waste-shipment.pdf

Sustainable Management of Fishery

Resources

• Objective: commitments made by the Brazilian Government during the Rio-92 Conference are being internalized into domestic public policy, specifically the ones under the Conventions on Climate Change, Biological Diversity, Combat Desertification and Agenda 21

– This audit was also an opportunity to carry out an exploratory case study of one aspect that is part of both Agenda 21 and the Convention on Biological Diversity, evaluating the management of fishery resources in Brazil.

– The case study also illustrates the complexity of conciliating economic, social and environmental aspects in policies designed to exploit natural resources

http://www.environmental-auditing.org/Portals/0/AuditFiles/Brazil_s_eng_Sustainable-Use-of-Fisheries.pdf

Audit on the Fulfillment of the Convention on

Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar

Convention)

• Portuguese Court of Auditors conducted an audit aiming to assess

the accomplishment of the commitments undertaken within the

Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar

Convention), to evaluate the management of the resources

allocated to wetlands protection and conservation and the results

obtained under an environmental standpoint

– The audit concluded that the existing legal framework, although there is

no specific legal framework or even the legal definitions for the concepts

of wetland and sustainable use of wetlands, provide adequate protection

– Wetlands listed as Ramsar sites enjoy the status of protected areas and

are mostly also included in the Natura 2000 network.

– The ecological conditions of listed wetlands are satisfactory and only

occasionally have threats to their sustainability been identified

http://www.environmental-auditing.org/Portals/0/AuditFiles/Portugal_s_eng_Fulfilment-of-

RamsarConvention.pdf