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Gothenburg Protocol

The 1999 Protocol to abate acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone—known as the Gothenburg Protocol—was adopted under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. The UK signed the Protocol in 1999. The Protocol came into effect in May 2005 and has now been ratified by 18 Parties. The Government placed an Explanatory Memorandum on the Protocol before both Houses of Parliament in September 2002. At that time it was thought that additional legislation would be required to allow the UK to ratify the Protocol. However, further analysis of the provisions of the Protocol has allowed us to establish that further legislation will not be required. I have tabled a revised Explanatory Memorandum indicating that we propose to ratify the Protocol forthwith. I intend that the instrument of ratification will be deposited with the United Nations in the course of December 2005. The UK will ratify the Protocol subject to a reservation. The new Explanatory Memorandum sets out the reservation that the UK will make. It relates to a provision on a type of gas engine where the UK considers that it is not technically feasible to meet the limit values required by the Protocol. As the Government take these urgent steps to ratify, we are conscious that Parliament will have less time than convention normally allows to consider the revised Memorandum. However, we believe this to be a special case on the ground that the earlier Memorandum on the Protocol has been available to both Houses since 2002. In these circumstances, the Government consider that a shortening of the normal scrutiny period is reasonable.