Principles of international environmental protection - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 107

requires collective regulation by the international community or a regional
group.
One innovative example of such collective regional regulation dates back as
far as 1979: the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution
(LRTAP). 24 The convention was organized in response to scientifi c research
conducted in the 1960s which revealed that the acidifi cation of Scandinavian
lakes was being caused by sulphur emissions from industries in continental
Europe. The Convention, negotiated under the auspices of the UN Economic
Commission for Europe, included the following Article 5:
Consultations shall be held, upon request, at an early stage between
Contracting Parties which are actually affected by or exposed to a signifi -
cant risk of long-range transboundary air pollution and Contracting Parties
within which and subject to whose jurisdiction a signifi cant contribution
to long-range transboundary air pollution originates, or could originate, in
connection with activities carried on or contemplated therein.
This type of agreement is, however, insuffi cient where the polluting substances
and their origin and fi nal destination are unknown. The need to improve
cooperation on the monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmission
of air pollutants (especially sulphur dioxide) in Europe therefore became
central to intergovernmental regulation (EMEP, Article 9). Already in 1984,
the protocol on long-term fi nancing of the cooperative programme for moni-
toring and evaluation of the long-range transmission of air pollutants in
Europe 25 was adopted by the contracting parties. The following year, the
protocol on reducing sulphur emissions and transboundary sulphur fl ux by
30 per cent 26 was also adopted.
To date, eight protocols have been negotiated to the LRTAP Convention.
Their objective is to reduce - besides sulphur emissions - nitrogen oxides,
heavy metals and POP compounds, with a view to mitigating environmental
problems such as acid rain. For the most hazardous substances, country-
specifi c reduction targets are given. Under the European monitoring and
evaluation programme (EMEP) it has proved possible to measure with a
considerable degree of precision which substances can be carried and in what
amounts, where these substances originated and where they end up. As a
result, the implementation committee of the convention system has been able
to monitor whether states are adhering to their obligations. Where they have
failed to do so, the implementation committee has taken up the problem in
the meetings of the parties. Substantive penalties have rarely been imposed; it
is generally suffi cient that a non-compliant party is 'named and shamed' as
having breached its obligations. The most common response of these violating
states has been to adjust their activities to meet the obligations in the protocols.
In this way, the regional treaty system of the UN Economic Commission for
Europe has been able to effectively reduce the long-range transmission of air
pollution.