Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Most states in the world are party to the 1989 Basel Convention on the
Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their
Transportation is based on the written consent of competent authorities in
both the exporting and importing countries.
In 1991, the then Organization of African Unity reacted to the Basel
Convention's global bureaucratic approach to transboundary waste transport.
It negotiated the Bamako Convention which banned the import of hazardous
waste to Africa. The third meeting of the parties to the Basel Convention in
1995 responded by adopting decision III/1, amending the Basel Convention
so that hazardous waste may not be taken from OECD countries to develop-
ing countries. The Rotterdam 1998 Convention on the Prior Informed
Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in
exported, the importing country must have suffi cient advance information in
order to make an informed decision to import.
Customary international law in transboundary pollution cases
Customary international law comprehensively regulates instances of trans-
boundary pollution:
1 in which the source of transboundary environmental impact is traceable to a
project - or a proposed project - within the territory of another state; such
projects are generally large and located near the international boundary;
2 in which the environment and run-off of the boundary river change due
to activities approved by the upstream state;
3 in which intrinsically hazardous activities - for example, nuclear power
plants - cause damage to the environment of other states.
Customary international law roughly defi nes the procedures that states should
follow in these cases (notifi cation and EIA procedures, for instance). In case of
damage, customary law also defi nes the activities that constitute a violation
of international law. There is also a wealth of bilateral and multilateral treaties
related to these situations.
Long-range transboundary air pollution
Some of the most challenging cases in international law are those concerning
the transboundary transmission of pollutants in which the origin of the pollut-
ants is diffi cult to trace to any single, identifi able project. The principle of
no-harm and the procedural rules in customary international law technically
apply to this kind of diffuse pollution as well. However, as it is diffi cult, if not
impossible, to prove that any particular state has caused any of the pollution,
it is impossible to show who is accountable. Diffuse transboundary air pollution
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