Ratification of OSPAR carbon capture and storage measures

At its meeting this week, the strategic Coordination Group of the OSPAR Commission welcomed further progress towards the legal storage of carbon dioxide in subsea geological formations. Amendments to the OSPAR Convention for this purpose, agreed in 2007, have been ratified and entered into force for those Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention which have ratified (Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, European Union, Luxembourg and Denmark) on 23 July 2011. Today the amendments also entered into force for The Netherlands and additional Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention will continue the process of ratification, acceptance or approval through their official national channels. Following up the conclusions and recommendations of the Quality Status Report 2010, the OSPAR Commission is giving further consideration to how to take forward the development of monitoring and assessment capacities for climate change and ocean acidification at the regional scale, including tools to assess the rate of change.

ENDS

Note for editors

[1] The OSPAR Commission was set up by the 1992 OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, which unified and up-dated the 1972 Oslo and 1974 Paris Conventions. It brings together the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, together with the European Community.

[2] In accordance with Article 15 of the OSPAR Convention, ‘amendment of the Convention shall enter into force for those Contracting Parties which have ratified, accepted or approved it on the thirtieth day after receipt by the Depositary Government of notification of its ratification, acceptance or approval by at least seven Contracting Parties’