Accelerated ban on shipping and dumping of hazardous waste

The Basel Action Network (BAN) is reporting that all the parties to the Basel Convention - 178 nations - have agreed to accelerate the law banning the export of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries.

It particularly highlights electronic wastes and obsolete ships. According to BAN, a pressure group specialising in hazardous and toxic waste, "the deal was brokered by Indonesia and Switzerland and was strongly promoted by the developing countries, China, the European Union and non-governmental organizations including Greenpeace, the Center for International Environmental Law, the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking and the Basel Action Network."

Hammered out at a meeting in Cartagena, Colombia the deal has been decades in coming. The law was originally adopted in 1995 as an amendment to the Basel Convention but ran out of steam.

Following the initiative from unusual bed-fellows, Indonesia and Switzerland, the amendment will be introduced into the Convention when 68 of the 90 countries that signed the original Convention in 1995 ratify it. 51 have already done so and it believes the final 17 should be possible in the next three years, according to BAN.

The draft strategy sets out a structure to measure and monitor the ban along with guiding principles in introducing the rules.