Japan, 11 October 2013
Mr President,
Excellencies,
The Executive Director of UNEP, Mr Achim
Steiner,
Heads of delegations,
Distinguished delegates
South Africa would like
to express its profound gratitude to the
Government of Japan for their warm welcome
and hospitality. We welcome and appreciate
the openness and commitment of all delegates
and dedication of the secretariat that has
led us to the point of signing the Minamata
Convention on Mercury.
The effects of mercury
on the environment and human health have
been widely documented, and due to time
constraints, I will not dwell on these,
other than restating the fact that anthropogenic
Mercury pollution accumulates globally in
our food, water and environment and negatively
affects human health, quality of life and
even results in death in some cases. In
the face of this global threat to public
and environmental health, the international
community has now finalized a legally binding
Treaty on Mercury, which we adopt and sign
today.
As a responsible global
citizen, South Africa is committed to play
our part in contributing to a solution to
the global threats posed by mercury releases
and emissions into the environment.
In this context, we
have already begun our preparation for the
entry into force of the Minamata Convention.
Domestically we have undertaken a national
inventory of mercury using UNEP’s Level
1 Toolkit for the identification and quantification
of mercury releases. We have enacted our
national Air Quality Management and Waste
Management Acts, which provide for the enforcement
of mercury emission limits; regulating mercury
pollution; mercury storage; rehabilitation
of contaminated sites as well as the responsible
management and disposal of mercury waste.
However, much work still
needs to be done domestically to effectively
translate these provisions into national
regulations, procedures and implementation
programmes, particularly with respect to;
creating or strengthening
policy, monitoring, evaluation and enforcement
institutional arrangements as well as inter-agency
coordination structures;
developing mercury strategies and implementation
plans;
developing guidelines, health information,
education and research programmes and other
tools to enable and support this implementation;
as well as
enhancing domestic technological and human
resource capacity for implementation.
In addition there are still legislative
and regulatory gaps that need to be addressed
to deal with issues such as mercury supply;
trade; manufacturing processes; as well
as phase down and phase out regulations.
The major challenge for South Africa, as
a developing country is to implement these
measures in a manner that they contribute
to our national development priorities of
poverty eradication and job creation. We
have to be able to demonstrate to our constituency
that firstly, the significant investment
required for mercury phase out, pollution
control and management is justified as an
integral part of our sustainable development
pathway and secondly, that it is an essential
contribution to a fair and responsible global
effort to protect human health and the environment
in the context of sustainable development.
In relation to this
challenge, it is only the entry into force
of the Minamata Convention and its full
implementation that will demonstrate the
benefit to human and environmental health
and that the investment in action on mercury
is a fair commitment and effort made by
all countries.
In order to build trust
in the instrument and facilitate rapid entry
into force, it is absolutely critical that
the interim arrangements to activate the
enabling and support mechanisms of the Minamata
Convention that are captured in the Final
Act are made fully operational at an early
stage.
In this regard, it is
imperative that adequate and predictable
financial, technology transfer and capacity
building support be provided to developing
countries. To enable and support compliance
with the obligations of the Convention,
we call upon;
Developed countries
and financial institutions, including the
Global Environment Facility, to provide
financial resources to enable the full implementation
of the Minamata financial mechanism;
All countries to promote and enable the
transfer of cleaner technology on mutually
agreed concessional terms and within reasonable
agreed-upon time frames for implementation
of the Convention;
All countries and stakeholders to cooperate
in enabling and building the institutional,
professional and technical capacity to address
the challenges of mercury phase-out, control
and management at all levels.
Distinguished delegates,
South Africa would further like to emphasize
the importance of cooperative, coordinated
and synergistic International Environmental
Governance and particularly within the chemicals
cluster. This effort requires close cooperation
and coordination between the Minamata and
the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
as well as the Strategic Approach to International
Chemicals Management (SAICM) which will
improve the effectiveness of our Environmentally
Sustainable Development efforts as well
as enhance efficiency, cut costs, and avoid
duplication.
Finally, we all owe
a duty to the present and future generations
to ensure sustainable development including
through a strong and comprehensive global
mercury treaty. The early operationalisation
of the Minamata financial, technology and
capacity building mechanisms will enable
entry into force and will indeed move us
forward in meeting the 2020 chemicals safety
goal. South Africa is committed to working
constructively with all countries during
the interim phase to lay a solid foundation
for an early entry into force of the Minamata
Convention.
Thank you
