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UNEP Global Partnership on Mercury Air Transport and Fate Research - Canadian Contribution -

This document highlights Canada's efforts in reducing mercury emissions and its research on mercury transport and fate. It covers domestic policies, international activities, Canadian mercury emissions data, atmospheric measurement networks, Arctic research, and modeling techniques.

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UNEP Global Partnership on Mercury Air Transport and Fate Research - Canadian Contribution -

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  1. UNEP Global PartnershiponMercury Air Transport and Fate Research - Canadian Contribution - Grace Howland Environment Canada, Chemicals Management Division Oct 10-11, 2007 Grace.Howland@ec.gc.ca

  2. Domestic Policy • Canadian Environmental Protection Act • Clean Air Regulatory Agenda (CARA): recent regulatory agenda includes reducing mercury emissions and ambient mercury concentrations in air • science component to measure efficacy

  3. International Activities • UNEP global mercury programme • Canada/US Binational Toxics Strategy • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North American Regional Action Plan (NARAP) on mercury • New England Governors- Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG-ECP) Mercury Action Plan. • Arctic Action Plan on Mercury • Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) • UNECE Heavy Metals Protocol

  4. International Activities (continued) • UNEP air transport and fate research partnership • member of the UNEP F&T partnership • hosted the F&T partnership meeting – Jan 2007 • contributors to UNEP emissions report • support to review UNEP emissions report • participate in UNEP F&T Partnership workshop in April 2008 • Opportunity : Canada will host the 2012 Global Mercury Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia • UNEP F&T Partnership may wish to hold a special session toward updating related partnership issues (e.g. F&T report)

  5. Canadian mercury emissions • Environment Canada maintains a comprehensive anthropogenic Hg emissions inventory • Hg emissions inventories from 1990 to 2005 are reported under the National Pollution Release Inventory (NPRI) using accepted emissions estimation techniques similar or comparable to those of the USEPA NPRI website: http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/npri/npri_home_e.cfm • Canada’s current annual Hg emissions are about 6 tonnes

  6. Emissions (continued) • Canadian mercury emission data is available from Environment Canada, through the UN ECE’s website and cited in many publications. • Environment Canada plans to officially publish Hg emissions in April 2008. • Plans are in place to develop a repository for global Hg emissions under the auspices of the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants.

  7. Science • National program to measure atmospheric mercury through the Canadian Atmospheric Measurement Network (CAMNet). • CAMNet measures mercury in air and precipitation, estimates wet deposition and assesses Hg spatial and temporal trends in Canada. • Canadian atmospheric mercury data are available through the National Atmospheric Chemistry (NatChem) database and the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) web sites: NatChem website: http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/NAtChem/index_e.html MDN website: http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/mdn/

  8. Focus on the Arctic • research to understand and quantify mercury depletion events in the Arctic. • partner in the Arctic Mercury Assessment Program (AMAP) to develop a circumpolar Hg measurement network and synthesize the knowledge of mercury processes and fate in the Arctic. • enhancing mercury measurement and research programs under the International Polar Year (IPY) to further the understanding transport and fate in the Arctic and sub- Arctic regions.

  9. Mercury Research • expanded efforts to examine mercury speciation (reactive gaseous mercury and particulate mercury) and development of a dry deposition network (with US). • research on air-surface exchange of mercury in natural and disturbed marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. • work with academic partners to improve knowledge on mercury biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

  10. Modeling • Environment Canada participates on domestic and international scales to understand mercury emissions, transport and fate using atmospheric mercury modeling techniques (GRAHM) through programs such as UNECE-HTAP Task Force. • Atmospheric mercury modeling is directed at understanding domestic, regional and global source receptor relationships; understanding impacts of changes in emission levels and; implications of changes in economic and policy related issues.

  11. THANK YOU

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