1998 Year of the Ocean A Survey of International Agreements 



In 1996, a Protocol to the London Convention was adopted, at a special meeting of the 

 contracting parties, and signed by the United States, subject to ratification. The Protocol is a free- 

 standing agreement to which both contracting and non-contracting parties to the London 

 Convention may become party. The Protocol embodies a major structural revision of the 

 Convention — the so-called "reverse list" approach. Parties are obligated to prohibit the dumping 

 of any waste or other matter that is not listed in Annex 1 ("the reverse list") of the Protocol. 

 Dumping of wastes or other matter on the reverse list requires a permit. Parties to the Protocol 

 are further obliged to adopt measures to ensure that the issuance of permits and permit conditions 

 for the dumping of reverse list substances comply with Annex 2 (the Waste Assessment Annex) 

 of the Protocol. There are seven categories of substances on the reverse list. These include 

 dredged material; sewage sludge; industrial fish processing or other fish waste; vessels and 

 offshore platforms or other man-made structures at sea; inert, inorganic geological material; 

 organic material of natural origin; and bulky items including iron, steel, concrete and similarly 

 unharmful materials for which the concern is physical impact and is limited to those 

 circumstances where such wastes are generated at locations with no practicable access to options 

 other than dumping. 



Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1994 



Over 160 countries are now Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change 

 (the Convention) which was ratified by the United States in 1992. This Convention entered into 

 force on March 21, 1994 and the Parties held their first meeting in April 1995 in Berlin. There, 

 they launched a negotiating process designed to produce a new legal instrument to deal with the 

 threat of climate change in the post 2000 period. In this regard, the Third Session of the 

 Conference of the Parties [to the Convention] reached agreement December 11, 1997 on a 

 protocol committing developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 



Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider 

 Caribbean Region (Cartagena Convention), 1983 



The Cartagena Convention, which entered into force in 1984, is a framework convention 

 negotiated under the auspices of the United Nafions Environment Programme, Regional Seas 

 Program. It is aimed at the protection of the marine environment and the promotion of 

 environmentally sound development in the wider Caribbean region, including the Gulf of 

 Mexico. The Cartagena Convention is similar in form to nine other regional agreements 

 negotiated under the auspices of the Regional Seas Program, including one for the South Pacific, 

 to which the United States is a party. 



The Cartagena Convention contains general obligations on parties to protect the marine 

 environment of the region from a variety of pollution sources, including oil pollution from ships, 

 dumping, and pollution from land-based activities. It is intended to be supplemented by protocols 

 containing more specific obligations in these areas. A Protocol on Combating Oil Spills was 

 negotiated and entered into force with the Cartagena Convention. A Protocol on Specially 

 Protected Areas and Wildlife was negotiated in 1990 but has not entered into force. This Protocol 



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