Editorial note

The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, adopted under the auspices of the Paris and Oslo Commissions, has replaced the Oslo Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping from Ships and Aircraft, 1972 and the Paris Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Land-Based Sources, 1974. Its central obligation requires Parties to adopt programmes and measures to ‘prevent and eliminate pollution’ of the maritime area (Article 2(1)). To that end, the Convention requires the Parties to apply: (a) the precautionary principle, whereby preventive measures to forestall risks to human health, the environment or legitimate uses of the sea are taken ‘even where there is no conclusive evidence of a causal relationship between the inputs and the effects’ (Article 2(2)(a)); and (b) the polluter pays principle, whereby the polluter bears the costs of pollution prevention, control and reduction (Article 2(2)(b)). In implementing the Convention, Parties are required to take into account the criteria in Appendix I to apply ‘best available techniques’ and ‘best environmental practice’, including, where appropriate, ‘clean technology’. The Convention does not prevent the Parties from taking more stringent provisions than those set out in the Convention (Article 2(5)).

The Annexes to the Convention provide specific regulation on the prevention and elimination of pollution from: land-based sources (Article 3, Annex I); dumping or incineration (Article 4, Annex II); and offshore sources (Article 5, Annex III).