Decision Ex.I/4. Conditions for granting and reporting critical-use exemptions for methyl 

Bromide 

Mindful of the principles set forth in the report4 by the chair of the informal consultation on methyl bromide 

held in Buenos Aires on 4 and 5 March 2004, namely, fairness, certainty and confidence, practicality and 

flexibility, and transparency, 

Recognizing that technically and economically feasible alternatives exist for most uses of methyl bromide, 

Noting that those alternatives are not always technically and economically feasible in the circumstances of 

nominations, 

Noting that Article 5 and non-Article 5 Parties have made substantial progress in the adoption of effective 

alternatives, 

Mindful that exemptions must comply fully with decision IX/6 and are intended to be limited, temporary 

derogations from the phase-out of methyl bromide, 

Recognizing the desirability of a transparent presentation of data on alternatives to methyl bromide to assist 

the Parties to understand better the critical-use volumes and to gauge progress on and impediments to the 

transition from methyl bromide, 

Resolved that each Party should aim at significantly and progressively decreasing its production and 

consumption of methyl bromide for critical uses with the intention of completely phasing out methyl 

bromide as soon as technically and economically feasible alternatives are available, 

Recognizing that Parties should revert to methyl bromide only as a last resort, in the event that a technically 

and economically feasible alternative to methyl bromide which is in use ceases to be available as a result of 

de-registration or for other reasons, 

1. That each Party which has an agreed critical use under the present decision should submit available

information to the Ozone Secretariat before 1 February 2005 on the alternatives available, listed according 

to their pre-harvest or post-harvest uses and the possible date of registration, if required, for each

alternative; and on the alternatives which the Parties can disclose to be under development, listed according 

to their pre-harvest or post-harvest uses and the likely date of registration, if required and known, for those 

alternatives, and that the Ozone Secretariat shall be requested to provide a template for that information and 

to post the said information in a database entitled “Methyl Bromide Alternatives” on its web site; 

2. That each Party which submits a nomination for the production and consumption of methyl bromide for

years after 2005 should also submit information listed in paragraph 1 to the Ozone Secretariat to include in 

its Methyl Bromide Alternatives database and that any other Party which no longer consumes methyl 

bromide should also submit information on alternatives to the Secretariat for inclusion in that database; 

3. To request each Party which makes a critical-use nomination after 2005 to submit a national 

management strategy for phase-out of critical uses of methyl bromide to the Ozone Secretariat before 1

February 2006. The management strategy should aim, among other things: 

(a) To avoid any increase in methyl bromide consumption except for unforeseen circumstances; 

(b) To encourage the use of alternatives through the use of expedited procedures, where possible, to 

develop, register and deploy technically and economically feasible alternatives; 

(c) To provide information, for each current pre-harvest and post-harvest use for which a nomination is 

planned, on the potential market penetration of newly deployed alternatives and alternatives which may be 

used in the near future, to bring forward the time when it is estimated that methyl bromide consumption for 

such uses can be reduced and/or ultimately eliminated; 

(d) To promote the implementation of measures which ensure that any emissions of methyl bromide are 

minimized; 
(e) To show how the management strategy will be implemented to promote the phase-out of uses of methyl

bromide as soon as technically and economically feasible alternatives are available, in particular describing 

the steps which the Party is taking in regard to subparagraph (b) (iii) of paragraph 1 of decision IX/6 in 

respect of research programmes in non-Article 5 Parties and the adoption of alternatives by Article 5 

Parties; 

4. To request the Meeting of the Parties to take into account information submitted pursuant to paragraphs 

1 and 3 of the present decision when it considers permitting a Party to produce or consume methyl bromide 

for critical uses after 2006; 

5. To request a Party that has submitted a request for a critical use exemption to consider and implement, if 

feasible, Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee 

recommendations on actions which a Party may take to reduce critical uses of methyl bromide; 

6. To request any Party submitting a critical-use nomination after 2004 to describe in its nomination the 

methodology used to determine economic feasibility in the event that economic feasibility is used as a

criterion to justify the requirement for the critical use of methyl bromide, using as a guide the economic 

criteria contained in section 4 of annex I to the present report; 

7. To request each Party from 1 January 2005 to provide to the Ozone Secretariat a summary of each crop 

or post-harvest nomination containing the following information: 

(a) Name of the nominating Party; 

(b) Descriptive title of the nomination; 

(c) Crop name (open field or protected) or post-harvest use; 

(d) Quantity of methyl bromide requested in each year; 

(e) Reason or reasons why alternatives to methyl bromide are not technically and economically feasible; 

8. To request the Ozone Secretariat to post the information submitted pursuant to paragraph 7 above, 

categorized according to the year in which it was received, on its web site within 10 days of receiving the 

nomination; 

9. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel: 

(a) To identify options which Parties may consider for preventing potential harmful trade of methyl 

bromide stocks to Article 5 Parties as consumption is reduced in non-Article 5 Parties and to publish its 

evaluation in 2005 to enable the Seventeenth Meeting of the Parties to decide if suitable mitigating steps 

are necessary; 

(b) To identify factors which Article 5 Parties may wish to take into account in evaluating whether they 

should either undertake new accelerated phase-out commitments through the Multilateral Fund for the 

Implementation of the Montreal Protocol or seek changes to already agreed accelerated phase-outs of 

methyl bromide under the Multilateral Fund; 

(c) To assess economic infeasibility, based on the methodology submitted by the nominating Party under

paragraph 6 above, in making its recommendations on each critical-use nomination. The report by the 

Technology and Economic Assessment Panel should be made with a view to encouraging nominating 

Parties to adopt a common approach in assessing the economic feasibility of alternatives; 

(d) To submit a report to the Open-ended Working Group at its twenty-sixth session on the possible need 

for methyl bromide critical uses over the next few years, based on a review of the management strategies 

submitted by Parties pursuant to paragraph 3 of the present decision; 

(e) To review critical-use nominations on an annual basis and apply the criteria set forth in decision IX/6 

and of other relevant criteria agreed by the Parties; 

(f) To recommend an accounting framework for adoption by the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties which can 

be used for reporting quantities of methyl bromide produced, imported and exported by Parties under the 

terms of critical-use exemptions, and after the end of 2005 to request each Party which has been granted a 

critical-use exemption to submit information together with its nomination using the agreed format; 

(g) To provide, in consultation with interested Parties, a format for a critical-use exemption report, based on 

the content of annex I to the present report, for adoption by the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties, and to 
request each Party which reapplies for a methyl bromide critical-use exemption after the end of 2005 to 

submit a critical-use exemption report in the agreed format; 

(h) To assess, annually where appropriate, any critical-use nomination made after the end of 2006 in the 

light of the Methyl Bromide Alternatives database information submitted pursuant to paragraph 1 of the

present decision, and to compare, annually where appropriate, the quantity, in the nomination, of methyl 

bromide requested and recommended for each pre-harvest and post-harvest use with the management 

strategy submitted by the Party pursuant to paragraph 3 of the present decision; 

(i) To report annually on the status of re-registration and review of methyl bromide uses for the applications 

reflected in the critical-use exemptions, including any information on health effects and environmental 

acceptability; 

(j) To report annually on the status of registration of alternatives and substitutes for methyl bromide, with 

particular emphasis on possible regulatory actions that will increase or decrease dependence on methyl

bromide; 

(k) To modify the handbook on critical-use nominations for methyl bromide to take the present decision

and other relevant information into account, for submission to the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties.