Noting with appreciation the work done by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and its Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee,

Noting that Parties submitting requests for methyl bromide have supported their requests with management strategies as requested under decision Ex.I/4, and that they should periodically provide updated information,

1. To permit, for the agreed critical-use categories for 2009 set forth in table A of the annex to the present decision for each Party, subject to the conditions set forth in the present decision and decision Ex.I/4 to the extent that those conditions are applicable, the levels of production and consumption for 2009 set forth in table B of the annex to the present decision which are necessary to satisfy critical uses, in addition to the amounts permitted in decision XIX/9;
2. To permit, for the agreed critical-use categories for 2010 set forth in table C of the annex to the present decision for each Party, subject to the conditions set forth in the present decision and in decision Ex.I/4 to the extent that those conditions are applicable, the levels of production and consumption for 2010 set forth in table D of the annex to the present decision which are necessary to satisfy critical uses, with the understanding that additional levels of production and consumption and categories of uses may be approved by the Meeting of the Parties in accordance with decision IX/6;
3. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to ensure that recent findings with regard to the adoption rate of alternatives are annually updated and reported to the Parties in its first report of each year and inform the work of the Panel;
4. That when assessing supplemental requests for critical use exemptions for 2010 for a specific nomination, the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel should take into account the most current information, including any information on domestic implementation of related 2009 and 2010 critical uses, in accordance with paragraph 2 of decision IX/6;
5. That a Party with a critical use exemption level in excess of permitted levels of production and consumption for critical uses is to make up any such differences between those levels by using quantities of methyl bromide from stocks that the Party has recognized to be available;
6. That Parties shall endeavour to license, permit, authorize or allocate quantities of critical-use methyl bromide as listed in tables A and C of the annex to the present decision;
7. That each Party which has an agreed critical use renews its commitment to ensure that the criteria in paragraph 1 of decision IX/6 are applied when licensing, permitting or authorizing critical use of methyl bromide and, in particular, the criterion laid down in paragraph 1 (b) (ii) of decision IX/6. Each Party is requested to report on the implementation of the present paragraph to the Ozone Secretariat by 1 February for the years to which the present decision applies;
8. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to continue publishing annually in its progress report prior to each meeting of the Open-ended Working Group the stocks of methyl bromide held by each nominating Party as reported in that Party’s accounting framework report;
9. To recognize the continued contribution of the Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee’s expertise and to agree that, in accordance with section 4.1 of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel’s terms of reference, the Committee should ensure that it develops its recommendations in a consensus process that includes full discussion among all available members of the Committee and should ensure that members with relevant expertise are involved in developing its recommendations;
10. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to ensure that the critical-use recommendations reported in its annual progress report clearly set out the reasons for recommendations and that, where requests are received from Parties for further information, the Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee should provide a response within four weeks of submission of such a request;
11. That Parties licensing, permitting or authorizing methyl bromide for critical uses shall request the use of emission minimization techniques such as virtually impermeable films, barrier film technologies, deep shank injection and/or other techniques that promote environmental protection, whenever technically and economically feasible;
12. That each Party should continue to ensure that its national management strategy for the phase-out of critical uses of methyl bromide addresses the aims specified in paragraph 3 of decision Ex.I/4, and that each Party should periodically update or provide supplements to its national management strategy to provide new information on actions, such as identifying alternatives or regulatory updates, being undertaken to make significant progress in reducing critical use nominations, and indicating currently envisaged progress towards a phase-down;
13. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to ensure that its consideration of nominations analyse the impact of national, subnational and local regulations and law on the potential use of methyl bromide alternatives, and include a description of the analysis in the critical use nomination report;

Annex to decision XX/5

Critical-use exemptions for methyl bromide for 2009 and 2010

Table A. 2009 agreed critical use categories (metric tonnes)

Table B. 2009 permitted levels of production and consumption (metric tonnes)

Table C. 2010 agreed critical use categories (metric tonnes)

Table D. 2010 permitted levels of production and consumption (metric tonnes)

*  Minus available stocks.