The UNEP Global Mercury Partnership consists of stakeholders from governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, private sector, academia and scientific community who are dedicated to reducing mercury pollution and protecting human health and the environment from the impacts of mercury. Read more on how to become a partner.
Governments initiated partnership activities in 2005 at the twenty-third session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (Decision 23/9) and subsequently strengthened the role of partnerships to effectively manage mercury activities. At its twenty-fifth session in 2009, the Governing Council (Decision 25/5) specified the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership as one of the main mechanisms for the delivery of immediate actions on mercury during the negotiation of the global mercury convention. Read more on the history of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership.
With close to 260 partners to date, the Partnership focuses today on supporting timely and effective implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, providing state of the art knowledge and science and raising awareness towards global action on mercury.
The Partnership comprises eight areas of work, which represent sectors that use mercury or process raw materials that contain mercury, as well as key themes in mercury management and science. Activities are also conducted in a cross-cutting manner across Partnership areas, currently on mercury from oil and gas and from non-ferrous metals mining and smelting.
The Overarching Framework of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership establishes a Partnership Advisory Group, which plays a key role in guiding and encouraging the work of the Partnership and its areas of work. Finally UNEP provides the Secretariat of the Partnership and supports its work on a daily basis.
