1999 Gothenburg Protocol under the LRTAP Convention

The Executive Body adopted the Gothenburg Protocol (GP) on 30 November 1999. The Protocol entered into force on 17 May 2005. Here you can find the Status of ratification.

 The objective of the 1999 Protocol was to control and reduce emissions of sulphur, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and volatile organic compounds that are caused by anthropogenic activities and are likely to cause adverse effects on human health, natural ecosystems, materials and crops, due to acidification, eutrophication or ground-level ozone as a result of long-range transboundary atmospheric transport.

The Protocol was amended in 2012 by Executive Body decisions  2012/1  and 2012/2 to include national emission reduction commitments to be achieved by 2020 and beyond. The revised Protocol also includes emission reduction commitments for fine particulate matter.  The amended Gothenburg Protocol entered into force  on 7 October 2019. Currently, 31 Parties have accepted the amended Gothenburg Protocol.

“Each Party having an emission reduction commitment in any table in annex II shall reduce and maintain the reduction in its annual emissions in accordance with that commitment and the timescales specified in that annex. Each Party shall, as a minimum, control its annual emissions of polluting compounds in accordance with the obligations in annex II. In taking steps to reduce emissions of particulate matter, each Party should seek reductions from those source categories known to emit high amounts of black carbon, to the extent it considers appropriate.” (Amended Gothenburg Protocol, ECE/EB.AIR/114, Article 3.1)