Stockholm Convention

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are one of the Federal Environment Ministry's main priorities in chemicals policy. POPs are chemical substances that remain in the environment for a long time, are relatively resistant to degradation, accumulate in the food chain and can reach concentrations in fatty tissue that adversely affect human and animal health. POPs can travel long distances through water or air currents, spreading to corners of the globe far from where they were released. POPs are mainly found in Arctic regions and mountain ranges, where they are transported by air currents and end up “trapped” due to the cold conditions. In fact, samples taken across different environmental media have detected significantly higher POP concentrations in the cold polar regions.

The Stockholm Convention aims to address these environmental risks through global bans and restrictions on POPs. It entered into force on 17 May 2004 and has been ratified by a total of 184 states.

POPs occur in many chemical applications, for example in pesticides or industrial chemicals. Sometimes, they are released unintentionally as by-products from manufacturing or combustion processes, as in the case of the highly toxic dioxins and furans.

The POP list currently contains 34 chemicals after three new POPs, methoxychlor, dechlorane plus and UV-328, were added at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention.

The aim of the Convention is to prevent or at least reduce the release of POPs into the environment by banning or limiting the production, use, import and export of POPs and products containing POPs. It also contains rules regarding the use of best available environmental technologies.

The European Union implements the obligations of the Stockholm Convention through Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants.

The regulation is continuously updated to reflect the current POP list of the Stockholm Convention.