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Pez-Peste

We are a group of MIT students and faculty who attended the negotiations for the Minimata Convention on mercury, which took place in Geneva from 13-18 January 2013. We are continuing to write about mercury science and policy in the Minimata Convention and beyond. Our goal is to help present the latest scientific results for the information of policy-makers and the public. Follow us on our blog and twitter as we discuss issues relevant to mercury pollution. About Us

Pardee House Seminar on Minamata Convention

Noelle Selin was a panelist at a seminar at Boston University on February 25, focusing on the new Minamata Convention and related issues. See a full article about it at the link below. Panelists Discuss New Global Mercury Treaty at Pardee House Seminar » Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future | Blog Archive | Boston University.

Reflections on the Minamata Convention process (from Leah)

By: Leah Stokes The negotiations ended a little less than a month ago. Life is back to normal. No more early morning wake ups and late night sessions with delegates from around the globe. The treaty text is finalized, with just the diplomatic convention pending. When I reflect on the final round of negotiations in Geneva, a few thoughts have come to mind. 1) How little the media covered the negotiations. Compared to any round of the climate talks, the mercury treaty largely went ignored. This despite the 15 million people who rely on mercury for small-scale mining, and the

Its own time zone: A reflection on INC5 (from Ellen)

The Mercury Negotiation at the United Nations in Geneva existed in its own time zone. At first I thought it was jet lag, but the Centre Internationale de Conferences Geneve (CICG), which housed the convention, must be in its own time zone; there are few other explanations. Never before had I seen a meeting be scheduled to start at 1:30am. It started at 2:30, as if the delegates had tacitly agreed upon a daylight-savings-like clock change. I thought my watch must be wrong. But, my watch is Swiss made. I bought it 17 years ago in Lucerne, Switzerland. I’ve only

Reflections on INC5 (from Bethanie)

I will happily admit that going into the INC5 I probably knew the least out of our group about international negotiation. I study the chemistry of bacteria in the ‘twilight zone’ of the ocean. Consequently, my research does not directly intersect with policy often. So, I really did not know what to expect. I chose to cover mercury added products and manufacturing processes. I figured that my chemistry background and familiarity with synthesis processes would make this issue more accessible to me than say, covering financial assistance and capacity building. Before the trip I inhaled UN assessments, technical reports, and

Insights from INC5 (from Danya)

by Danya Rumore It’s a little more than a week after the completion of INC5, and I find myself reflecting on the insights I gained from the UN mercury negotiations in Geneva as I travel back to Cambridge via train. That brings me to my first important insight: In stark contrast to public transportation in the US, Swiss trains and buses are—true to the stereotype—perfectly on time. If the train is scheduled to depart at 9:13am, you better be on the train by 9:12:45am. As fellow team member Leah Stokes unhappily learned, if the bus is more than a minute

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