The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for ratification of Minamata Convention on Mercury and depositing the instrument of ratification, enabling India to become a Party of the Convention.
India signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury on September 30, 2014.
The Convention gives 5 years’ time to India to control and reduce emissions from new power plants and 10 years’ time for the already existing power plants.
Minamata Convention
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty framed to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.
The objective of the convention’s implementation to protect human health and environment from the anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.
It came into being on January 19, 2013.
The convention is named after the Japanese city Minamata as the city facing a devastating incident of mercury poisoning because of deadly mercury contamination since 1950.