On Tuesday, delegates to INC3 continued to work through sections of the draft text, exchanging views on issues including: atmospheric emissions and releases to land and water; final provisions, including legal concerns such as the right to vote, signature, ratification, and authentic texts; environmentally sound storage, mercury wastes, and contaminated sites; and mercury in products and processes.
The contact group on ASGM met during lunch and in parallel to the afternoon plenary session. At the close of Tuesday’s plenary, contact group Co-Chair Donald Hannah (New Zealand) reported that the group was close to having a single text to present to plenary. He said that work would be done overnight to prepare a draft report of the group’s outcome, and that the contact group would reconvene at 8:00am on Wednesday to "get as much agreement as it can" before presenting its work to plenary.
INC3 established two additional contact groups: one on emissions and releases, co-chaired by John Roberts (UK) and Rina Soemarno (Indonesia), and a second on storage, wastes, and contaminated sites, co-chaired by Abiola Olanipekun (Nigeria) and Anne Daniel (Canada). These groups were scheduled to meet on Tuesday evening. |