At a summit, Brazil does not present a plan to curb the use of mercury in mining
It was established that this would be within the mandate of the National Mineral Policy Council, reactivated last month. The fight now is for the mercury plan to pass through the National Chemical Safety Commission before it is endorsed. Environment and Health insist that there cannot be an action plan that does not come from all ministries.
Larissa Rodrigues, research director at Instituto Escolhas, regretted the Lula government’s stance. “It is a shame that we have not fulfilled, once again, our commitment to deliver the National Action Plan to deal with mercury in mining,” he said. “We have made little progress since the treaty came into force and we reached COP6 without significant progress compared to the last meeting, held two years ago”, he lamented.
According to her, several sectors have already abandoned the use of mercury, but the metal continues to be widely used in gold mining in the Amazon. “It is important that we have a clear deadline to eliminate mercury in gold extraction and concrete strategies to achieve this goal. We need to begin the transition to mercury-free mining,” he added.
What Brazil will announce this week is an action plan with the health sector. The measure will gradually end the use of amalgams by 2030, a step considered important by the Brazilian government and which was the subject of intense internal debates.
But the government disputes the idea that little progress has been made on the issue. Among the measures adopted are:
- The presentation of the MIA – Initial Assessment of the Implementation of the Minamata Convention.
- Implementation of unprecedented environmental monitoring in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, and actions also in the Munduruku and Kayapó lands.
- Acceptance of the gradual end of dental amalgams in the country. This is the first time that Brazil has taken a position on this matter in plenary.
- Creation of the National Chemical Safety Commission (CONASQ), with a Permanent Working Group for the Implementation of the Minamata Convention, which includes the participation not only of the government, but also of civil society, industry and academia.
- The last three factories that still use mercury in their processes are carrying out decommissioning within the Convention’s deadline (2025) — and Brazil did not request an extension of the deadline until 2030, as countries like Argentina and India did.
