Carriage of Dangerous Goods – New Multilateral Agreement

The United Kingdom has countersigned Multilateral Agreement M340 on 16 August 2021, under section 1.5.1 of the ADR concerning the carriage of sodium-ion batteries and sodium-ion cells using an organic electrolyte or sodium-ion batteries and sodium-ion cells using an organic electrolyte contained in equipment or packed with equipment.

The multilateral agreement will expire on 1 January 2023.

Dangerous goods are subject to transport, workplace, storage, consumer and environment protection regulations, to prevent accidents to persons, property or the environment, to other goods or to the means of transport employed. 

To ensure consistency between all these regulatory systems, the United Nations has developed mechanisms for the harmonization of hazard classification criteria and communication tools, and for transport conditions for all modes for transport. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) also administers regional agreements for effective implementation of these mechanisms for road, rail and inland waterways transport of dangerous goods.

Multilateral agreements and their signatories can be found on the UNECE website at the following link:

• ADR Multilateral agreements - UNECE website

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