Convention on Long Range

Transboundary Air Pollution,

1979 (LRTAP)
And eight Protocols
Context/Background
• Acid rain/Acid deposition severe in Europe and in North America
• Sources of pollution (Nox and SO2)- power plants (coal, oil); industrial and residential
boilers, mobile sources
• Over six million hectares (approximately fifteen million acres) of forest land in Europe
affected
• Forest damage in West Germany), in the Vosges Mountains of France, Switzerland,
Sweden and Italy
• In 1985, over 50% of West Germany's forests found to be damaged
• As of 1982, 18,000 of Sweden's estimated 85,000 lakes were acidified
• In Switzerland, less than 15% of sulphur deposited in 1980 came from Swiss sources,
with the rest coming from Italy, France, West Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom
(UK), East Germany, Spain, Czechoslavakia, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, the
Netherlandsand others
• Phenomenon of acid deposition did not fit in with the concept of resolution of bilateral
disputes (such as in Trail Smelter) where the pollutant was identifiable

• Note: Statistics from ‘Amy A. Fraenkel, The Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution: Meeting the Challenge of International
Cooperation, 30 Harv. Int'l. L. J. 447 (1989)’
The LRTAP 1979
• Influences
• Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration
• The environmental chapter of the Final Act of the 1975 Conference on Security and Co-
operation in Europe (CSCE)
• One of the first int’l treaties which recognised adverse effects of long-term and
short-term air pollution
• Basic obligation: “to limit and, as far as possible, gradually reduce and prevent air
pollution including long-range transboundary air pollution”
• LRTAP defined as “air pollution whose physical origin is situated wholly or in part
within the area under the national jurisdiction of one state and which has adverse
effects in the area under the jurisdiction of another state at such a distance that it
is not generally possible to distinguish the contribution of individual emission
sources or groups of sources”
• Est. Co-operative Programme for the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-
Range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP) has 3 components:
• Collection of emission data for SO2, Nox, VOCs, and other air pollutants
• Measurement of air and precipitation quality
• Modelling of atmospheric dispersion
1984 Protocol on Long-Term Financing of the Cooperative
Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-Range
Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe
• International cost-sharing for EMEP
• Mandatory contributions by Contracting Parties on an annual basis
(for those within the geographical scope of the EMEP)
• Voluntary contributions by Contracting Parties/Signatories (for those
outside the geographical scope of the EMEP)
• All contributions to be deposited to the General Trust Fund for the
Financing of the Implementation of LRTAP
• Dispute Settlement- Negotiation/any other method acceptable to
parties
The 1985 Helsinki Protocol on the Reduction of Sulphur
Emissions or their Transboundary Fluxes by at least 30 per cent
(Sulphur Protocol)
• Reduction of national annual sulphur emissions/ transboundary fluxes by
at least 30 % as soon as possible and at the latest by 1993
• 1980 levels as the basis for calculation of reductions
• Parties to submit annual reports to the EB (about calculation methods,
progress of implementation, adoption of national programmes etc.)
• ‘30 % Club’
• The approach had often been criticized for being rigid and arbitrary; and
for not taking account of historic and current emissions
• Despite the criticism, been successful: Reduction in sulphur emissions by
more than 50 percent by 1993 (parties as a whole)
• Dispute Settlement- Negotiation/any other method acceptable to parties
The 1988 Protocol concerning the Control of Nitrogen Oxides or
their Transboundary Fluxes (Nox Protocol)
• Reduction of total annual emissions
• Application of national emissions standards
• Establishment of ‘critical loads’
• (Art. 1(7)) “a quantitative estimate of the exposure to one or more pollutants below
which significant harmful effects on specified sensitive elements of the environment
do not occur according to present knowledge”
• Distinguished between sources- whether mobile (automobile/vehicles) or
stationary
• Exchange of technology
• Availability of unleaded fuel, particularly along int’l transit routes, to
facilitate movement of vehicles containing catalytic converters
• Annual reporting, review, identification of policies and programmes, etc.
• Dispute Settlement- Negotiation/any other method acceptable to parties
The 1991 Geneva Protocol concerning the Control of Emissions of
Volatile Organic Compounds or their Transboundary Fluxes (VOC
Protocol)
• Control and reduce emissions of VOCs in order to reduce transboundary
fluxes and the fluxes of the resulting secondary photochemical oxidant
products so as to protect human health and the environment from adverse
effects
• 3 ways to achieve this obligation:
• Reduction of national annual emissions of VOCs by at least 30 % by the year 1999,
using 1988 levels as a basis/any other annual level b/w 1984-1990
• Reduction of VOCs from Tropospheric Ozone Management Areas (TOMAs) by
atleast 30%; Total national annual emissions of VOCs by the year 1999 to not exceed
the 1988 levels
• Ensure at least that at the latest by the year 1999 its national annual emissions of
VOCs do not exceed the 1988 levels (for Parties whose annual VOC emissions in
1988 were lower than 500,000 tonnes and 20 kg/inhabitant and 5 tonnes/km2)
• Application of best available technologies which are economically feasible
• Dispute Settlement- Negotiation/any other method acceptable to parties
The 1994 Oslo Protocol on Further Reduction of Sulphur
Emission
• Sulphur Oxides Management Area (SOMA)
• Critical Load concept (long term targets; cannot be reached in a single step)
• Effects-based approach: differentiated obligations for emission reduction, with
greater emission reductions allocated to those countries where the overall
benefit would be the greatest
• Defines ‘sulphur emissions’, ‘fuel’, ‘critical sulphur deposition’
• Introduces ‘critical levels’
• “concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere above which direct adverse effects on
receptors, such as human beings, plants, ecosystems or materials, may occur, according to
present knowledge”
• Control and reduce sulphur emissions…reduce depositions of oxidized sulphur
compounds in the long term do not exceed critical loads for sulphur given… as
critical sulphur depositions, in accordance with present scientific knowledge
• Dispute Settlement- ADR + ICJ
The 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Heavy Metals
• Targets three heavy metals: Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg)
• Reduction of emissions for these three metals below their levels in 1990 (or any
other year between 1985 and 1995)
• Requires Parties to phase out leaded petrol
• Aims to reduce emissions from
• industrial sources (iron and steel industry, non-ferrous metal industry)
• combustion processes (power generation, road transport) and
• waste incineration
• Suggests best available techniques (BAT) for these sources
• special filters or scrubbers for combustion sources
• mercury-free processes
• Introduces management measures for other mercury-containing products, such
as electrical components (thermostats, switches), measuring devices
(thermometers, manometers, barometers), fluorescent lamps, dental amalgam,
pesticides and paint
• Dispute Settlement- ADR + ICJ
The 1999 Gothenburg Protocol to Abate Acidification,
Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone
• Control and reduce anthropogenic emissions of four pollutants-
sulphur, NOx, ammonia, VOCs
• Set emission ceilings for 2010
• Significance of including ammonia emissions: farming activities
• Full implementation of the Protocol envisages the following reduction
levels (compared to 1990):
• Sulphur emissions- 63%
• NOx emissions by 41%
• VOC emissions by 40%
• Ammonia emissions by 17%