CP/RAC history

The main objectives and working lines of the CP/RAC for the next biennium were established in January 2008, at the 15th Meeting of the Parties of the Convention for the Protection of Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and its Protocols (COP-15). In this sense, both the Work Plan and Budget for 2008-2009 were approved.

Pursuing the goal set by its mission, the CP/RAC strengthened its actions during 2008 and 2009 in order to promote sustainable production and consumption, by creating links throughout the Marrakech Process, the Global Initiative on Sustainable Consumption and Production driven by the United Nations Environmental Program and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. Apart from that, the Centre also took up a decisive stance in the field of rational management of chemicals thanks to its official recognition as a Regional Centre for the Stockholm Convention.

The fact that the Centre had the willing to cooperate of with other relevant actors in the Mediterranean gained special importance in 2009. Thus the agreements signed during that year increased in a substantial way, reaching the amount of 18 agreements signed, which was the highest number achieved in the whole trajectory of the CP/RAC. In addition, following their desire to disseminate knowledge and awareness, the number of communication materials made also increased, and the systems that were being used became upgraded. This way, they got fully in line with the era of online communication.

By implementing its mission to promote sustainable consumption and production and rational management of chemicals, the CP/RAC puts a special emphasis on three specific areas where the Centre has remarkable experience and great potential: the diffusion of cleaner production and green competitiveness by means of the GRECO Initiative, sustainable consumption and, finally, rational management of chemicals, enhanced by the ratification of the Centre as Regional Centre for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. For the first, it is extremely important to mobilise the private sector and business in the Mediterranean, specifically, since this is the sector which, as a last resort and in a practical way, will apply the most sustainable modes of production. In the sphere of consumption, a key objective that arises is to identify sustainable consumption patterns, and mechanisms to be transmitted to society in general, by using the appropriate systems as for the new information and communication systems. In this regard, the Centre has made great efforts to facilitate access to its records and, at a time, to proactively address the civil society through universities and NGOs. Finally, as far as rational management of chemicals is concerned, the Centre is working to save the Mediterranean from hazardous chemicals by working side by side with the private and the public sectors in each of the countries included in the Action Plan for the Mediterranean.