One year into the revision of the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-Level Ozone, as amended in 2012 (Gothenburg Protocol), under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention), which is expected to further strengthen efforts to reduce air pollution in Europe and North America, Parties have taken significant strides toward revising the Gothenburg Protocol.
Meeting at the 44th session of the Executive Body (Geneva, 9-12 December 2024), which also marked the 45th anniversary of the Convention, Parties adopted the plan for the revision and discussed substantive issues related to it.
Many Parties showed strong support to include methane in the Gothenburg Protocol revision, recognizing methane’s significant role as contributor to ground-level ozone in the UNECE region. The Executive Body requested the Working Group on Strategies and Review at its 63rd session (26-28 May 2025) to develop recommendations for policy options on methane for consideration by the Executive Body at its 45th session in December 2025.
Parties also discussed potential overarching collective health and biodiversity goal(s) and agreed that any such goal would be aspirational and reflecting a collective ambition for the UNECE region rather than for individual countries. While the Executive Body agreed that the ambition level and timeline of the goal(s) need not be the same as those of the emission reduction commitments, it also agreed that emission reduction commitments remain the cornerstone of the future revised Protocol. The Executive Body decided to update these commitments and prioritize facilitating their adoption by non-Parties to the current Protocol. This approach aims to increase the number of ratifications and broaden implementation of the future revised Protocol. The Executive Body also requested further development of effect-based scenarios at different levels of ambition for cost-effective emission reduction strategies, with 2015 as base year and 2040 as target year.
Parties also discussed the scope and nature of the technical annexes to the Protocol. The Executive Body requested further work on potential options to revise the technical annexes, in particular taking into account the needs of non-Parties.
With plans underway for technical updates, strengthened commitments, and potential inclusion of methane, the UNECE region is poised to take a significant step forward in collective environmental stewardship.
The coming sessions of the Working Group and Executive Body in 2025 will provide opportunities to refine these items further, ensuring they align with scientific insights and the needs of both Parties and non-Parties to the Protocol.