1. 1 Improving International Collaboration TRI National Training Conference February 2008

2. 2 Overview Introductions What is a Pollutant Release and Transfer Register? Key Milestones in Worldwide PRTR Development Why Do We Promote PRTRs? What Benefits Do We Get? Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Free Trade Agreement Activities

3. 3 What is a Pollutant Release and Transfer Register? Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) is the international term used to refer to TRI-like systems. Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) generally provide detailed data on types, locations and amounts of chemicals released on-site and transferred off- site by industrial and other facilities. Data are usually reported annually and are made available to the public.

4. 4 Key Milestones in Worldwide PRTR Development 1992 - United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the “Earth Summit” or “Rio Summit” 2000 – Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety 2002 – World Summit on Sustainable Development 2003 – Aarhus Convention came into force in 2001, in 2003 adopted the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers 2006 - Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) adopted at the International Conference on Chemicals Management by Governments, the private sector and civil society

5. 5 Why Do We Promote PRTRs? What Benefits Do We Get? Chemicals have the potential to travel from their country of origin, therefore we all have an interest in encouraging countries to increase their knowledge of chemicals and improve chemicals management. The old saying -- What gets measured, gets managed Comparability of pollutant release reporting across national boundaries, resulting in a “level playing field” for industry. The publication of useful guidance documents, emissions factors information, and annual reports by organizations like the OECD and the CEC. In the case of the CEC, Mexican chemical release data become more widely available and of comparable quality to US and Canadian data. The identification of approaches by other PRTR systems that could enhance the value and utility of TRI data. Fulfilling international commitments on environmental cooperation and as a consequence of Free Trade Agreements or other international agreements.

6. 6 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) The OECD coordinates PRTR activities between the industrialized nations of Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific through the PRTR Task Force. –The goal of the Task Force is to enable the OECD governments to provide effective guidance to its reporting industries. –This in turn supports collaborative solutions development and higher quality data acquisition. The OECD began work on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) in 1993 as a follow-up to the “Earth Summit” –called on member countries to take steps to establish, implement and make publicly available a PRTR system –Established OECD PRTR Task Force, meet on an annual basis –Established guidelines for the core elements of a PRTR system –Published a Guidance Manual for governments to assist them in establishing a PRTR –to help member countries implement efficient and effective PRTR systems, OECD produces documents describing the experiences of countries that have developed PRTRs; current and emerging uses of PRTR data; how PRTRs differ; and the identification, selection, and adaptation of release estimation techniques that industry can use to calculate pollutant releases and transfers. Currently, close to 20 OECD countries have an operational PRTR. Because of Aarhus Convention, by 2009 almost all OECD countries should have PRTR systems in operation.

7. 7 Some Examples of OECD Activities Tools and Uses of PRTR Data Guidance Document –presents an extensive survey of examples of the variety of tools for using PRTR data and the types of uses of PRTR data in OECD member countries –presents examples of uses by the public and community groups, by industry, by government, and by academic and independent research institutions. Centre for PRTR Data (http://www.oecd.org/env_prtr_data/) –purpose of this database is to share PRTR data as widely as possible –PRTR data included in this database is compiled on a national or regional level. The database does not include PRTR data of individual sites of facilities.

8. 8 Some Examples of OECD Activities Considerations for Ensuring Quality PRTR Data –This document compiles examples of processes employed by different PRTR systems to promote data quality. –This report on PRTR systems operated by OECD PRTR Task Force member countries will address opportunities for improving data quality and lessons learned through all stages of PRTR implementation from the enabling legislation and accompanying outreach to data collection, validation, and publication. –Will be complete and published in 2008

9. 9 Free Trade Agreement Activities What is the connection between the environment and trade agreements? –New trade will increase both imports and exports, and can put a strain on the environment through: impact on public health and environmental standards at home; transboundary and global environmental pollution; and trade in potentially hazardous products and services. The U.S. is required by Executive Order to perform environmental reviews of certain major trade agreements. EPA and other agencies play a significant role in this new environmental review process, which is coordinated by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). As Free Trade Agreements are negotiated, environmental chapters or side agreements are sometimes negotiated as components of FTAs. Cooperative projects are sometimes agreed upon as a result of FTAs.

10. 10 Some Examples of TRI FTA-related Work When PRTRs are included as capacity building cooperative projects in FTAs, the TRI Program works with other organizations and countries to provide technical assistance, for example, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). UNITAR developed a guidance series entitled Implementing a National Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) Design Project: A Guidance Series and four supplementary guides, each of which addresses a specific aspect of the PRTR design process. And the OECD has its Guidance Manual for governments as well as many other useful resources.

11. 11 Some Examples of TRI FTA-related Work U.S. - Chile FTA – approved by both countries in 2003. As part of the agreement, the two countries agreed to pursue a number of cooperative projects - development of a PRTR was one of the projects. From 2003-2005 EPA worked with UNITAR and the government of Chile to implement a PRTR design and capacity building project in Chile. As the training arm of the United Nations, UNITAR works with developing countries to implement new environmental programs and transfer knowledge and technologies to them from nations with established environmental programs. Fall of 2007 saw Chile’s National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) release their PRTR data for the first time on a new Web site.

12. 12 Some Examples of TRI FTA-related Work Dominican Republic - Central American FTA (CAFTA-DR) – approved by all countries by fall 2007. The countries are Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and U.S. EPA is working to implement an agreement with UNITAR on a project to facilitate development of a regional approach to identify, report and publicly release information on priority pollutants. The proposed project will be catalyzing in nature and it is expected to result in specific outcomes which set the stage for developing and implementing a regional PRTR system in the medium and long-term. The project will include activities at the regional level as well as in two pilot countries.

13. 13 Contact Information Michelle Price Toxics Release Inventory Program Division Office of Environmental Information U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Phone: (202) 566-0744 Fax: (202) 566-0741 Email: price.michelle@epa.gov TRI Program Web Site: http://www.epa.gov/tri/