The Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions or their Transboundary Fluxes by at least 30 per cent was concluded in Helsinki on 8 July 1985, the English, French and Russian texts being equally authentic. It was adopted by the Executive Body for the Convention. It was open for signature at Helsinki from that date until 12 July inclusive, by ECE member States, States with consultative status and regional economic integration organizations that are Parties to the Convention. Depositary: the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is not the parent Convention done at Geneva in 1979, nor the 1994 Oslo Protocol, nor the 1999 Gothenburg Protocol.

Article 2: the Parties shall reduce their national annual sulphur emissions or their transboundary fluxes by at least 30 per cent as soon as possible and at the latest by 1993, using 1980 levels as the basis for calculation. Article 3: each Party shall study at national level the need for further reductions when environmental conditions warrant. Article 4: annual reporting to the Executive Body of national levels and the basis of calculation. Article 5: EMEP shall provide sulphur budgets, fluxes and depositions, using appropriate models; outside the geographical scope of EMEP, models appropriate to the circumstances of the Parties. Industrial processes are not transcribed.

Article 6: national programmes, policies and strategies, without undue delay, as a means of achieving the reduction of at least 30 per cent, with progress reports. Article 7: amendments proposed in writing to the Executive Secretary of the ECE, discussed at the annual meeting if circulated at least 90 days in advance; adopted by consensus; enter into force on the ninetieth day after acceptance by two thirds of the Parties. Article 8: disputes by negotiation or any other method of settlement acceptable to the parties to the dispute.

Article 10: ratification, acceptance or approval by Signatories; accession as from 13 July 1985. A State acceding after entry into force shall implement Article 2 by 1993 at the latest; if it accedes after 1990, not later than 1995, and shall implement Article 6 correspondingly. Article 11: enters into force on the ninetieth day after the sixteenth instrument: 2 September 1987. Withdrawal after five years, taking effect on the ninetieth day.

Cover: Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, the conference venue of the period; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: 1985 Helsinki Protocol on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions; Protocol on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions or their Transboundary Fluxes by at least 30 per cent (UNECE).