NIP Dialogue Series – Voices from the Countries
Lima, Peru – March 2026
This blog post draws on an interview with Fernando Horna, National Coordinator of the Global NIP Update Project, Peru. The interview is part of the NIP Dialogues Series under the GEF-funded, UNEP-led Global NIP Update project (GEF ID 10785).
Peru is currently updating its National Implementation Plan (NIP) under the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), building on a decade of progress and expanding its scope to cover newly listed substances. Fernando Horna, National Coordinator of the Global NIP Update Project, Peru, shared the technical advances, regulatory developments, remaining gaps and strategic lessons emerging from this update.
Expanding the scope of inventories
Peru’s last NIP for 2021–2025, approved in June 2021, covered POPs considered up to the seventh Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the Stockholm Convention in 2015. In the current update, Peru has developed an inventory of POP pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), unintentional POPs (UPOPs) with base years 2022 and 2023, and new industrial POPs for the period 2015 to 2023, covering substances included from COP8 (2017) to COP11 (2023). Information on chlorpyrifos, recently included in COP12 (2025), has also been incorporated.
Inventory systems and remaining data gaps
Peru’s existing system for updating POP inventories is primarily focused on pesticide POPs and PCBs in the electricity sector. There is also an information system based on official sources to develop the inventory of dioxins and furans, although several gaps remain. These gaps need to be strengthened to obtain more precise data in key source categories, particularly wood waste incineration (category 1F), open burning for industrial and domestic fires (category 6B), the hydrocarbons sector covering refineries (category 7F) and contaminated sites (category 10).
Analytical capacity and regulatory progress
Peru has public and private laboratories capable of sampling and analysing POP pesticides and PCBs in oils and soils. However, further regulatory development is needed for new industrial POPs and UPOPs. Peru needs to continue strengthening technical and legal frameworks to address the gap in analytical capacity and the absence of specific regulations for these two major POPs groups.
A significant regulatory advancement came in September 2025 with the approval of a PCB regulation extending beyond the electricity sector to all productive sectors. It requires submission of PCB inventories by December 2025, with annual updates each March, and requires elimination of all PCB waste by December 2028, in line with Stockholm Convention commitments.
Priorities in the updated NIP
Peru’s updated NIP prioritizes new industrial POPs, with emphasis on developing procedures and methodologies to identify these substances in articles or finished products. This is paired with the need for a regulatory framework that enables real compliance and can be introduced through gradual application.
The update also stresses the need to rapidly implement the PCB regulation to identify equipment contaminated with PCBs across productive industrial sectors, classify it appropriately and move towards elimination by the end of 2028.
For UPOPs, the focus turns to controlling and reducing dioxin and furan releases, especially in open-burning categories. The update refers to actions aimed at controlling waste burning in dumpsites and highlights the need for provisions to control waste incineration.
Communication and awareness-raising
Communication strategies need to be reinforced with more creative and inclusive awareness‑raising activities, including deeper attention to risk assessment of substances.
The promulgation of regulations governing the life cycle of new industrial POPs and UPOPs, such as dioxins and furans, would serve as an objective and measurable indicator of the success of awareness-raising and outreach activities.
At the same time, stronger communication requires greater availability of resources. Specialized personnel with dedicated time, materials with specialized design and dissemination techniques, and channels that work both in-person and on virtual platforms are required.
Lessons learned
"We must put all our efforts into raising awareness and fostering public engagement so that sufficient social pressure is exerted on decision-makers to enact regulations governing the life cycle of new industrial POPs, with a focus on the environmentally sound management of the waste generated by these substances at the end of their useful life, for their disposal. It should also be aimed at reducing UPOPs emissions.”
– Fernando Horna, National Coordinator of the Global NIP Update Project, Peru
Several lessons emerged that will resonate with countries facing similar constraints.
First, raising public awareness lays the foundation for life‑cycle regulation and sustained implementation.
Second, once awareness is established, it becomes easier to advance cross-sector action plans, with stakeholders taking ownership of commitments as necessary to reduce or minimize health and environmental risks of POPs – not merely as obligations.
Third, begin developing the dioxins and furans inventory as soon as possible. Despite its seemingly minor role in the NIP template, the time required for its development and validation is significant, and it necessitates selecting a base year with sufficient data to apply the Stockholm Convention UPOPs Toolkit to estimate dioxin and furan releases.
Peru worked with 2022 and 2023 as base years, and the process was affected by the time needed to access complete information from the most recent year. Applying the toolkit to several groups and categories may be more complex, including energy and heat generation (group 3), open burning (group 6) and oil refineries (group 7F).
“We recommend at least consulting with specialists from the technical committee or the national coordination mechanism for the project related to these groups, or based on the source categories that a country identifies as most representative or a priority.”
– Fernando Horna, National Coordinator of the Global NIP Update Project, Peru
Finally, it was highlighted that technical visits to companies in representative sectors are particularly useful for verifying production processes, air pollution control systems, technologies used and fuels employed, which allows for more accurate estimates based on the application of the toolkit.
Peru’s current NIP update includes expanded pesticide inventories, clearer priorities for new industrial POPs, and a major regulatory step through the PCB regulation with defined reporting and elimination timelines through 2028.
Remaining gaps – more precise data for key dioxins and furans source categories, stronger analytical capacity, and stronger regulations for new industrial POPs and UPOPs – highlight where continued attention and investment are needed.
Peru’s experience points to a practical pathway for other countries: start early on the most demanding inventories, actively involve technical specialists in the process for the most complex groups and categories, verify data through site visits, and keep awareness‑raising and engagement at the centre so that life‑cycle regulation and implementation can move forward in a sustained way.
To watch the full interview, please follow this link: https://youtu.be/f91CfbQAtPw
To learn more about the Global NIP Update project, visit Global NIP Update | Green Policy Platform
