Day three of the COP3 went a little differently than the first two days. Everyone got up early to catch an 8AM tram going to CERN. CERN is right on the border between Switzerland and France, and is home to the world’s largest particle accelerator. The large hadron collider (LHC) enabled physicists to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle in the Standard model of physics. We spent a few hours at CERN touring the facilities and learning a little bit about the work done there, after which we stopped at the gift shop in the lobby. Then, we got on the tram and got back to the convention center just in time for the afternoon plenary session.
After stopping at a food truck for some delicious hamburgers, the group went to find seats for the session. The President started with, as usual, setting the agenda for the session. The first item on the agenda was discussing guidance on the management of contaminated sites. To open these talks, Iran proposed an amendment to the text that emphasizes the importance of the transfer of technology and capacity building in the management of contaminated sites. Many parties, including Gabon, Peru, and Namibia supported the adoption of an amendment regarding contaminated sites. Namibia had what seemed to be one of the most controversial statements of the day, stating that Africa is the most important continent in the world thanks to its diverse wildlife, and parties with financial resources should aid Africa in rehabilitating its contaminated sites. The President funnily responded by saying that all the continents in the world are important. After a number of parties spoke, the EU stated that informal talks on this matter have been going really well and they were close to a consensus. After the parties spoke, observers were given the opportunity to speak, and IPEN noted that the two ways to help this issue is to stop the creation of contaminated sites and to provide support for already contaminated sites. To close on this topic, the President suggested that Iran, the EU, and the rest of the parties work on improvements to Iran’s proposal and return to the plenary. In his statement, the President also said that perfection is the enemy of progress, and that improvement can come later, but the parties need guidance now. This statement stuck with me and I think it is a good piece of wisdom that should be noted by all the parties at the convention.
The next topic addressed was emissions from the open burning of waste. Japan opened the talks by saying that data available about emissions from the burning of waste is scarce, and that efforts should be made to help this issue. Japan also offered to collaborate with other countries on managing the open burning of waste, which several parties accepted. Argentina also requested that the Secretariat work on gathering more data on this sector to be better equipped for COP4 in 2021. Uganda also pointed out that a lot of open burning happens in homes or on the sides of streets, making it even more difficult to collect information. Guinea called for a deadline for parties to submit data regarding the open burning of waste, to which Lebanon agreed. A general theme to this portion of the plenary session is that it will be important in the future to collect better data on the open burning of waste.
Next, the President quickly stated that the proposed dates for the fourth Conference of the Parties is October 31st through November 5th, 2021. There were no objections, so these dates were set and the President moved onto the final item on the day’s agenda, the Implementation and Compliance Committee (ICC). The Secretariat summarized the work of the ICC and the chair, a representative from Romania, presented the report on the work of the ICC with a focus on the appendices. The President proposed the adoption of Appendix II of this document to the parties, to which the US and the EU proposed amendments. Several parties, including Iran, initially disagreed with these amendments. Chile also asked for them in written form. This topic seemed very controversial among the parties, and they even took a short break to discuss the matter informally. When the parties reconvened, the President suggested that the US and EU submit their proposals to the Secretariat, and that all the parties should think about the matter overnight and discuss it the next day. Overall, this ending to the day seemed very chaotic, and unique in the sense that the parties seemed to be caught off guard by the proposed amendments by the US and EU. Although we only attended the afternoon plenary session, I found our third day at the conference to be the most interesting and I’m eager to see what conclusion the parties come to tomorrow regarding the ICC.