ABSTRACT
Within six months of the entry into force of the Protocol, the Parties are required to begin negotiations on further steps to reduce national annual emissions of VOCs. They must also co-operate to develop, inter alia, control strategies; ensure cost-effectiveness, possibly through the use of economic instruments; and adopt measures and a timetable for achieving such further reductions, commencing no later than 1 January 2000 (Arts 2.6 and 2.7). As in the previous protocols, Parties are free to take more stringent measures (Art 3.1). The Protocol also provides for exchange of technology, research and monitoring, regular review of its implementation in national programmes, policies and strategies (Arts 4-7). Implementation of the Protocol’s obligations will be verified by the exchange of information and annual reporting requirements; alternatively the Parties undertake to establish a ‘mechanism for monitoring compliance’ with the Protocol (Arts 3.3 and 8). Once again, the Protocol makes use of the institutions established under the 1979 LRTAP Convention (Sands (1995) 254-55).
