International Climate action encompasses work under various treaties. While most of this is under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), valuable work often also occurrs under lesser known treaties such as the Montreal Protocol addressing greenhouse gases that affect ozone depletion in the atmosphere, or the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

The fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-5) will take place  in Geneva, Switzerland, from 30 October to 3 November 2023. On the agenda is the phase-out dates for mercury-added products and the availability of non-mercury alternatives for two industrial processes. In April 2023, the African region made amendment proposals, including:

• additional lighting categories for the complete phase-out of all fluorescent lamps,
• further measures and elimination of 1ppm threshold for skin lightening products, and
• a 2030 phase-out date for dental amalgam.

The amendment on fluorescent lamps complements the unanimous decision at Minamata COP4 to phase out compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) by 2025. If the proposed phase-out dates for all remaining fluorescent lighting categories are adopted in November at COP5, the global manufacture and trade of all fluorescent bulbs will effectively end by 2026 – and will avoid cumulatively;

• 178 metric tonnes of mercury pollution (lamps and power plant emissions)                        
• $1.23 trillion in electricity bills                        
• 2.97 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – the equivalent of approximately three times the annual CO2 emissions of Japan.  

With each year of delay past 2025, we allow an additional 300 Mt of CO₂ emissions to warm the planet.

Climate Action Merribek has signed an open letter organised by NGOs to Heads of Delegation to the Minamata Convention COP5 urge representatives of all 146 countries at the Minamata Convention COP5 to stand in favor of this amendment and adopt the proposed 2026 phase out date, or earlier. 

Its time to say FAREWELL TO FLUORESCENTS.

See our previous advocacy on Fluorescents and the Minamata Convention in March 2022 for COP4.2

References:

Minamata Convention on Mercury COP5, https://minamataconvention.org/en/meetings/cop5

Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water on the Minamata convention https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/chemicals-management/mercury