Archives
2020 Ocean Pathways Week
As time ticks on towards the 2020 UN Oceans Conference, participants sought out synergies between SDG 14 (Ocean Action) and biodiversity, with one participant calling for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to “stop seizing on the obvious and look at what science is telling us."
8th Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
Parties to the Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture met to address a range of policy, implementation, cooperation, and administrative matters of relevance to the Treaty and its Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing, but they were unable to adopt a package of measures to enhance the functioning of the MLS.
31st Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (MOP 31)
Delegates to the 31st Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol successfully completed five days of negotiations, with the most pressing agenda items—terms of reference for the study on the 2021-2023 replenishment of the Multilateral Fund, the unexpected emissions of trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11), and the areas of focus for the 2022 quadrennial assessment reports of the three Assessment Panels—requiring careful negotiation to balance different parties’ agendas.
Resumed 9th Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing (OWG-EFMLS-9) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
The Working Group was unable to bridge positions between the developed and the developing world. Deep principled divergences remained, in particular on benefit-sharing payments from use of genetic sequence data. Co-Chairs Hans Hoogeveen (Netherlands) and Javad Mozafari (Iran) will hold informal consultations immediately prior to the Governing Body (GB) session to be held from 11-16 November 2019 in a final attempt to reach consensus.
Budapest Water Summit (BWS) 2019
Discussions at the Budapest Water Summit framed how to prevent emerging water crises, how to manage crises where they cannot be prevented, and identifying relevant gaps in knowledge, governance, technology, finance, regulations and institutions.
15th Meeting of the Chemical Review Committee (CRC-15) of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
At its fifteenth meeting, the Rotterdam Convention’s Chemical Review Committee reviewed notifications from countries that took a domestic final regulatory action that banned or severely restricted three chemicals: amitrole, decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) and nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NP and NPEs).
African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) 2019
The first African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) offered insights into the status of climate research in Africa and the success stories of bringing this research into use. Participants addressed a variety of topics, including uncertainty and ways to respond to it, and climate and weather services. They further investigated the challenges to have climate information integrated into decision and policy making for a resilient Africa.
15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF)
At the meeting, which was organized on the theme of “Mining in a Changing Climate," delegates discussed ways mining companies are starting to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from mining, as well as how they are learning to adapt to changes in climate and the environment, water scarcity, and increased disaster risk. They considered what mining will look like in the future as digital technology changes the way that work is done, the digital economy changes the way that resources may be taxed, and consumers increasingly seek out ethically sourced products.
15th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention (POPRC-15)
The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee reviewed three chemicals nominated for listing in Annexes A, B, and/or C to the Stockholm Convention: the insecticide methoxychlor, the industrial chemical Dechlorane Plus (and its syn-isomer and anti-isomer), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), its salts, and related compounds.