The UNEP Global Mercury Assessment: Sources, Emissions and Transport

Abstract. Global Mercury Assessments (GMAs) have been produced as part of the UNEP Mercury Programme upon the request of UNEP Governing Council since 2001. The first GMA concluded that there is sufficient evidence of significant global adverse impacts from mercury and its compounds to warrant further international action to reduce the risks to human health and the environment from the release of mercury and its compounds to the environment. The follow-up “Global Atmospheric Mercury Assessment: Sources, Emissions and Transport ” was delivered to the UNEP Governing Council in 2009. These reports formed the basis for the UNEP Governing Council policy decisions that have resulted in the ongoing (INC) process to establish a global legally binding instrument on mercury by 2013. UNEP is currently updating the 2008 “Global Atmospheric Mercury Assessment: Sources, Emissions and Transport, ” for presentation to the UNEP Governing Council in early 2013. The updated report will present a new inventory of anthropogenic atmospheric mercury emissions for all countries, based on best available data from 2008-2010, including an analysis by sector and region. This part of the report is being developed by a joint AMAP/UNEP expert group. The report will also present updated information on atmospheric transport and deposition and – as a new addition – information on aquatic releases of mercury and on mercury fate and transport in aquatic environments. These parts of the report will be delivered by the UNEP Partnership Area on Mercury Fate an