According to today's Financial Times (sorry, no links without a subscription), Russia and China blocked the listing of chrysotile asbestos to the list of "hazardous chemicals that cannot be exported to developing countries without their knowledge and agreement." (14 others were added to the existing 27 on the list.) The EU denounced this, as did the World Wildlife Fund: "The failure to list chrysotile asbestos is a bad omen for the [Rotterdam] convention, risking serious harm by sending a signal that the convention's requirements do not need to be taken seriously." The FT reports that the substance is "a sensitive economic issue for Russia and Canada, where production is concentrated in the French-speaking province of Quebec." Canada voting its economic self-interest on environmental matters? I am shocked, shocked. To read more on chrysotile asbestos, see an industry view here, an Australian regulatory view here or the recent, critical editorial in the Toronto Star.