ENVIRONMENT: Rich Nations Block Hazardous Waste Disposal Fund

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Sep 7 1999 (IPS) - Industrialised nations blocked approval of a pact on accountability and indemnification for environmental damages caused during the exportation and disposal of hazardous waste.

The Protocol on Liability and Compensation for Damage Resulting from Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal tripped up over opposition by rich countries to the creation of a fund to compensate victims of accidents.

Coordinator of the Basel Action Network (BAN) Jim Puckett said that “first, the richest and most powerful countries reduced the Protocol to a few limp strands of spaghetti…then, once that mission was accomplished, they said this is not for us, but rather it’s for you developing countries.”

A working group comprised of experts from 87 countries met last week to finish drafting the Protocol on liability and compensation with respect to the Basel Convention, which regulates cross-border traffic of hazardous waste.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said the working group’s session in Geneva ran into a deadlock over “the question of whether or not to establish an Emergency and Compensatory Fund for assisting developing countries faced with unwanted wastes.”

The proposed fund would respond in cases in which it was unclear who was responsible for the accident affecting the environment, the responsible party had gone bankrupt, or damages exceeded the amount coverable by insurance companies.

UNEP believes action toward reducing and managing hazardous waste in an environmentally sound manner is necessary in developing countries, whose “capabilities and capacities…in disposal, monitoring and enforcement are quite weak.”

The UN agency sees the scant funds earmarked for the sound disposal and management of hazardous waste as another serious problem, in need of solutions at an international level.

At the debate in Geneva, the countries of Asia and Africa stood firmly behind the creation of a compensation system, while the positions of Latin American delegations varied, said an expert from Latin America.

Every year, more than 400 million tonnes of hazardous waste are generated worldwide, 10 percent of which is exported for disposal, a traffic that is regulated by the 1989 Basel Convention.

The Basel Convention lists 45 categories of hazardous waste products, including clinical wastes, mineral oils, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, lead, asbestos, organic cyanides, and halogenated organic solvents.

Since 1994, the Convention expressly bans all cross-border shipments of hazardous waste from members of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to countries that do not form part of that bloc of industrialised nations.

One of the arguments set forth against the compensation fund by industrialised nations is that the 1994 ban diminished movements of hazardous waste, or will do so in the near future, and that thus a financial support mechanism would be unjustified.

Developing countries respond, however, that a decline in transboundary movements of waste has yet to be demonstrated.

They say the only thing to do while information is being gathered and compiled is to discuss formulas in which developed nations express their political will to set up a compensation fund.

The two blocs are divided over the wording of article 16 of the Protocol, which refers to the compensatory mechanism. While industrialised countries prefer tentative wording, developing nations want an explicit agreement on the start of talks toward the creation of the fund.

A solution to the standoff has been left up to the Fifth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-5) to the Basel Convention to be held Dec 6-10 in that Swiss city in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Convention.

Representing non-OECD countries, the Colombian delegation stated at the end of last week’s meeting that developing nations would press for a “meaningful” Protocol at the ministerial meeting in Basel.

After nine years of efforts, the bloc of developing nations hopes the ministers will “salvage a worthy agreement for all countries,” the delegation added.

During the course of the negotiations, the parties to the Basel Convention overcame most of the discrepancies regarding the assignment of responsibility in case of accidents involving hazardous waste.

Initially, it was alternately suggested that the generators of waste, brokers, transporters, middle operators, processors or those involved in disposal be held accountable.

But in the end, the options were reduced to two. And one of them, which held middle operators responsible in case of accidents, was practically ruled out.

The second, which satisfied insurance companies but not the recycling, chemical and metals industries and others, held exporters of the waste accountable.

But the Basel Action Network complained that this option let the generators of waste off the hook. The “generators of hazardous waste must not escape liability,” argued Puckett.

“If generators are not liable, the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ that is established in most national legislation, including that of the European Union, is contradicted in favour of a ‘Broker Pays Principle’,” the spokesman for the Network maintained.

“In this way, large, wealthy transnational corporations can avoid responsibility for their wastes by always passing responsibility to middle operators, brokers, even mail-box companies,” he warned.

Puckett said industrialised nations had not only opposed the creation of a compensatory fund, but had also reserved the right to “opt out of” the Protocol. Thus, chemical giants like BASF or Monsanto are encouraged to “sell their waste to brokers” and export it to OECD members like Turkey, Mexico or Portugal.