Policy initiatives > LRTAP Convention

The Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution

In 1979 some thirty nations signed the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP convention). Aimed initially at reducing the effects of acid rain through control of the emissions of sulphur, its scope was later widened to include nitrogen pollutants, volatile organic compounds and photochemical oxidants. Heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants were subsequently also added.

The Convention was formed within the ECE, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, of which all the countries of Europe are members, as well as the United States and Canada. It came into force in 1983, after ratification by the legislatures of the required two-thirds of the signatory states.

The protocols signed to date are: the first sulphur protocol (1985), the NOx protocol (1988), the VOC protocol (1991), the second sulphur protocol (1994), protocols to reduce emissions of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (both 1988), and the so-called Gothenburg protocol (1999).

The 1999 Gothenburg protocol
The most recent agreement under the LRTAP Convention is the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone - also called the multi-effect protocol or the Gothenburg protocol, as it was formally adopted in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1999.

The protocol aims to cut emissions of four pollutants: sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and ammonia, by setting country-by-country emission ceilings to be achieved by the year 2010.

It is based on the critical-loads approach with different requirements for different countries. The requirements were assigned according to cost-effectiveness, i.e. to achieve the environmental targets at the lowest overall cost for Europe as a whole.

In December 2007, the Convention’s negotiating body – the Working Group on Strategies and Review – was mandated to start negotiations on further obligations to reduce emissions (e.g. through a revision of the current protocol, or the elaboration of a new protocol).

Negotiations are ongoing, with the aim to have a draft agreement ready for adoption before the end of 2011. The revised/new Gothenburg protocol is expected to set national emission ceilings for five air pollutants (the four listed above plus PM2.5), to be achieved by 2020.

Earlier protocols evaluated
Several countries are failing to comply with the protocols under the Convention, according to reviews conducted by its Implementation Committee. This failure concerns not only the obligatory emission targets, but also the obligation to report. See Acid News 1/09.

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Last modified: 25 October 2010.

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