Artikel 2

1. The Parties shall control and reduce their emissions of VOCs in order to reduce their transboundary fluxes and the fluxes of the resulting secondary photochemical oxidant products so as to protect human health and the evironment from adverse effects.
2. Each Party shall, in order to meet the requirements of paragraph 1 above, control and reduce its national annual emissions of VOCs or their transboundary fluxes in any one of the following ways to be specified upon signature:
a) It shall, as soon as possible and as a first step, take effective measures to reduce its national annual emissions of VOCs by at least 30% by the year 1999, using 1988 levels as a basis or any other annual level during the period 1984 to 1990, which it may specify upon signature of or accession to the present Protocol; or
b) Where its annual emissions contribute to tropospheric ozone concentrations in areas under the jurisdiction of one or more other Parties, and such emissions originate only from areas under its jurisdiction that are specified as TOMAs in annex I, it shall, as soon as possible and as a first step, take effective measures to: (i) Reduce its annual emissions of VOCs from the areas so specified by at least 30% by the year 1999, using 1988 levels as a basis or any other annual level during the period 1984-1990, which it may specify upon signature of or accession to the present Protocol; and
(ii) Ensure that its total national annual emissions of VOCs by the year 1999 do not exceed the 1988 levels; or
(i) Reduce its annual emissions of VOCs from the areas so specified by at least 30% by the year 1999, using 1988 levels as a basis or any other annual level during the period 1984-1990, which it may specify upon signature of or accession to the present Protocol; and
(ii) Ensure that its total national annual emissions of VOCs by the year 1999 do not exceed the 1988 levels; or
c) Where its national annual emissions of VOCs were in 1988 lower than 500,000 tonnes and 20 kg/inhabitant and 5 tonnes/km2, it shall, as soon as possible and as a first step, take effective measures to ensure at least that at the latest by the year 1999 its national annual emissions of VOCs do not exceed the 1988 levels.
3. a) Furthermore, no later than two years after the date of entry into force of the present Protocol, each Party shall: (i) Apply appropriate national or international emission standards to new stationary sources based on the best available technologies which are economically feasible, taking into consideration annex II,
(ii) Apply national or international measures to products that contain solvents and promote the use of products that are low in or do not contain VOCs, taking into consideration annex II, including the labelling of products specifying their VOC content;
(iii) Apply appropriate national or international emission standards to new mobile sources based on the best available technologies which are economically feasible, taking into consideration annex III; and
(iv) Foster public participation in emission control programmes through public announcements, encouraging the best use of all modes of transportation and promoting traffic management schemes.
(i) Apply appropriate national or international emission standards to new stationary sources based on the best available technologies which are economically feasible, taking into consideration annex II,
(ii) Apply national or international measures to products that contain solvents and promote the use of products that are low in or do not contain VOCs, taking into consideration annex II, including the labelling of products specifying their VOC content;
(iii) Apply appropriate national or international emission standards to new mobile sources based on the best available technologies which are economically feasible, taking into consideration annex III; and
(iv) Foster public participation in emission control programmes through public announcements, encouraging the best use of all modes of transportation and promoting traffic management schemes.
b) Furthermore, no later than five years after the date of entry into force of the present Protocol, in those areas in which national or international tropospheric ozone standards are exceeded or where transboundary fluxes originate or are expected to originate, each Party shall: (i) Apply the best available technologies that are economically feasible to existing stationary sources in major source categories, taking into consideration annex II;
(ii) Apply techniques to reduce VOC emissions from petrol distribution and motor vehicle refuelling operations, and to reduce volatility of petrol, taking into consideration annexes II and III.
(i) Apply the best available technologies that are economically feasible to existing stationary sources in major source categories, taking into consideration annex II;
(ii) Apply techniques to reduce VOC emissions from petrol distribution and motor vehicle refuelling operations, and to reduce volatility of petrol, taking into consideration annexes II and III.
4. In carrying out their obligations under this article, Parties are invited to give highest priority to reduction and control of emissions of substances with the greatest POCP, taking into consideration the information contained in annex IV.
5. In implementing the present Protocol, and in particular any product substitution measures, Parties shall take appropriate steps to ensure that toxic and carcinogenic VOCs, and those that harm the stratospheric ozone layer, are not substituted for other VOCs.
6. The Parties shall, as a second step, commence negotiations, no later than six months after the date of entry into force of the present Protocol, on further steps to reduce national annual emissions of volatile organic compounds or transboundary fluxes of such emissions and their resulting secondary photochemical oxidant products, taking into account the best available scientific and technological developments, scientifically determined critical levels and internationally accepted target levels, the role of nitrogen oxides in the formation of photochemical oxidants and other elements resulting from the work programme undertaken under article 5.
7. To this end, the Parties shall cooperate in order to establish:
a) More detailed information on the individual VOCs and their POCP values;
b) Critical levels for photochemical oxidants;
c) Reductions in national annual emissions or transboundary fluxes of VOCs and their resulting secondary photochemical oxidant products, especially as required to achieve agreed objectives based on critical levels;
d) Control strategies, such as economic instruments, to obtain overall cost-effectiveness to achieve agreed objectives;
e) Measures and a timetable commencing no later than 1 January 2000 for achieving such reductions.
8. In the course of these negotiations, the Parties shall consider whether it would be appropriate for the purposes specified in paragraph 1 to supplement such further steps with measures to reduce methane.