Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers first time in action

Luxembourg became first country to ratify PRTR Protocol

14.02.2006 |Anke Stock

The Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers was adopted at the meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention on 21 May 2003. 36 States and the European Community signed the Protocol in Kiev.

The Protocol is the first legally binding international instrument on pollutant release and transfer registers. PRTRs are inventories of pollution from industrial sites and other sources. The aim of the protocol is "to enhance public access to information through the establishment of coherent, nationwide pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) ...". The protocol is expected to exert a significant downward pressure on levels of pollution, as no company will want to be identified as among the biggest polluters.

On 7 February 2006 Luxembourg deposited the instrument of ratification with the UN Secretary-General and thus became the first country to ratify the PRTR Protocol.