Cement Partnership on Mercury officially launched

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEPⁱ) is preparing a global legally binding instrument on mercury via:

• The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), whose mission is to deliver a legally binding mercury instrument and
• The UNEP Global Mercury Programme, which deals mainly with partnership activities in various industry sectors, giving input into the decision making process of the INC track.

Cement manufacturing is one of the industry sectors targeted under the INC. As the cement sector was not included in any of the 7 partnership areas originally identified by UNEP, the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSIⁱ) applied to join the UNEP Global Mercury Programme and suggested the creation of an 8th partnership area, dealing with cement manufacturing activities. In this respect, CEMBUREAU participated in the 3rd session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC3) held in Nairobi (Kenya) on 31 October until 4 November 2011. In addition, the Association was invited to represent the CSI on the UNEP Partnership Advisory Group.

On 6 November 2011, the Partnership Advisory Group officially launched the Cement Partnership on mercury. This initiative is led by the CSI, with an additional co-chair due to be appointed in due to course. The co-chair is likely to be a government representative. The CSI has started working on a Business Plan for this partnership. CSI will also have to now identify additional partners for this partnership as well as identify potential funding sources.

More information: INC3