Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting

The 40th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the 20th Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection took place in Beijing, China from 23 May-1 June 2017. The ATCM sees the 12 Parties to the Antarctic Treaty convene annually for the purpose of exchanging information, consulting together on matters of common interest pertaining to Antarctica, including environmental protection and marine pollution. The Director was invited to participate and submitted a document on the functioning of the IOPC Funds. The Director, Mr José Maura, and the Head of External Relations and Conference, Mr Thomas Liebert, represented the IOPC Funds, sharing the Funds’ expertise in the field of compensation for pollution damage in order to facilitate a comparison between the Funds’ system and a mechanism envisaged under Annex VI to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.