Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is increasing pressure on the UK to take back the 1,400 tons of hazardous waste in 41 containers exported from the UK to Brazil early July 2009. The foreign ministry has asked its permanent mission in Geneva “to report the traffic of hazardous waste from the UK under the terms of the Basel Convention”, according to Brazil’s official government (Por) site.
Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim, spoke to David Miliband, UK foreign secreatary and former environment minister, who said the issue would be “given the required attention”. The Times (UK) reported 20 July that the UK government’s environment agency has said that it would take the waste back, as well as other waste in other South American ports, but that it would take time to do so.
The Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste came into being in 1989 to regulate the increasingly problematic international trade in toxic wastes. Its secretariat is administered by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in Geneva.
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News story, GenevaLunch, 29 July 2009.
Filed under: International organizations
Tags: Basel Convention, Brazil, Celso Amorim, David Miliband, Geneva, hazardous waste, Politics, Switzerland, toxic waste, UK, UNEP, World news