Environmental Engineering Reference
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use alternatives that would still be patented and be more expensive. In these circumstances,
it was quite natural to wonder what were the true motives of those seeking aggressive con-
trols. As I remember it at that stage, the only country with a developing economy that was
unequivocal in its support for stringent POPs controls was the Philippines. In addition, at
that time in North America, top-level managers in chemical regulatory agencies, such as
Environment Canada, preferred self-regulation by the industry rather than legislation. The
underlying concern indeveloped countries (including Canada) fromindustry andfromeco-
nomic ministries was not generally related to the 12 substances being focused on in the
global negotiations but on the possibility of commercial implications for other newer and
yet unmarketed substances.
It was with these ominous thoughts in mind that I went into the first IFCS ad hoc
working group meeting held in Canberra, Australia (March 1996). It opened with much
the same divergence of opinions on what should be done as we had seen in Vancouver.
However, as the days went by in Canberra and at the next meeting held in Manila (June
1996), John Buccini steered the group beyond the consensus on the need for worldwide
POPs controls to agreement on what the policy intent of those controls should be and there-
fore the nature of the actions. The final IFCS report recommended immediate internation-
al action to protect human health and the environment by actions that would “reduce and/
or eliminate the emissions and discharges of the 12 POPs” (called the “dirty dozen”) and
“whereappropriateeliminateproductionandsubsequentlytheremaininguseofthosePOPs
that are intentionally produced”. In January 1997, the UNEP Governing Council reviewed
the IFCS report and adopted a decision to set up an intergovernmental negotiating commit-
tee to begin work in the following year.
Every country in the United Nations can take part in the negotiation of a UNEP con-
vention. It was a rather humiliating education as to how little I knew about the many coun-
tries that exist around the world. When setting off in the conference hall to discover the
views of a particular country, I passed country flags that were totally unfamiliar. I would
not have been surprised to see Anthony Hope with the Prisoner of Zenda sitting behind the
flag of Ruritania or Jonathan Swift at that of Brobdingnag, Lilliput or Laputa. Ignorance
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