10th anniversary of the Minamata Convention against mercury in Panama

The Minamata Convention on mercury, aimed at the reduction of anthropogenic emissions and the use in products of this toxic metal, was ratified by Panama through Law 160 of April 1, 2015. This signing placed the country among the first ten nations to ratify the agreement since its presentation – the fourth in Latin America and the first in Central America. The Minamata Convention is the most recent global compact of the United Nations (UN), reached through international and multi-sectoral negotiations. It was launched on 12 October 2013, predating the future global plastics convention.

Since 2010, the Zero Pollution Alliance has assumed the responsibility of promoting the comprehensive and sustainable management of this toxic metal, starting with raising awareness among children, young people, teachers, families and environmental organizations. Together with the private sector, it promoted information processes, capacity building and implementation of cleaner production programs for the proper management of hazardous solid waste, especially those with mercury and other heavy metals (cadmium, lithium, lead and aluminum). By doing that, we obtained the “Gender´s Hero” recognition by the BSR Conventions in 2015.

The Zero Mercury Mission is considered a global initiative for the management of this chemical element (Hg) in industrial processes, mercury-containing wastes and mercury-containing products, compounds, coal-based electrical sources, and waste from chlorine production plants. This initiative was born within the mercury waste management area of the UN Global Mercury Program based in Tokyo, Japan in 2012.

Our work has been a demonstration of persistence and knowledge of the facts, which has allowed the Zero Pollution Alliance, allied companies and, above all, citizens, to apply the mitigation measures of the Minamata Convention on Mercury in their operations and daily activities.

Fifteen years have passed since the Zero Mercury Mission´s, "Put on the batteries with the batteries" and "Get alive with your bulbs" programs, with artistic, cultural and informative participation were launched. These efforts made it possible to reduce 270 thousand lighting units, 48 tons of batteries, 16 kgs of elemental mercury and 3,347 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (t/eq. CO₂), becoming a B and Carbon Neutral corporation.

Thanks to these actions, there is now many people and companies informed and committed to the proper management of mercury waste and other metals of special handling. Social networks have become our main means of communication, through the Zero Pollution Alliance and Zero Mercury Mission accounts on Facebook and Instagram – leaving behind our old Yahoo blogs, today a technology of the past.

The Minamata Convention has been ratified by more than 150 countries and is binding on its parties and citizens. It thus becomes a new common environmental law and a mechanism to preserve the health of humanity and biodiversity in the face of the impact of mercury.

However, local laws and coordinated action by all actors are required to achieve their implementation. The success of public management of mercury and other pollutants, as well as toxic waste, necessarily involves confronting illegal gold mining in Latin American rivers, fueled by the high price of this precious metal.

By publicizing our work overtime and involving hundreds of companies that have adopted our environmental ESG programs, we have contributed to progress towards sustainability, implementing solutions to the actual and potential problems arising from environmental and climate risks. We are allies in the creation of hundreds of companies that generate jobs in the green economy, supporting the dissemination of climate information and its risks, as well as environmental responsibility programs that promote a better quality of life and an encounter with the new paradigms of eco-sustainable human development.

We must all participate, intensively and proactively, in the identification and elimination of sources of mercury emissions, smuggling and illegal cross-border movement, the illegal mining of gold with mercury, and in the protection of vulnerable groups, ecosystems and their biodiversity. Only then will we be able to move towards the total elimination of mercury, based on new environmental policies.

The author has been a founding member of the mercury waste management area of the Global Mercury Program since 2008.