About
In a year brimming with international talks to improve the global management of chemicals and wastes, the highest-level bodies of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions will convene to tackle prominent issues and the future of the Prior Informed Consent procedure.
The Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions will meet to collectively advance the sound management of chemicals and waste. The three treaties each have a distinct role to play in chemicals and waste management. Yet, they also collaborate to tackle these complex issues—and importantly how to provide technical assistance and financial resources—together.
These joint meetings represent a unique format in global environmental governance. The 2023 “triple COP” is comprised of:
- Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Certain Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, sixteenth Conference of the Parties (BC COP16)
- Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, eleventh COP (RC COP11)
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), eleventh COP (SC COP11)
The Basel Convention recently took landmark decisions, including on plastics and e-waste (or, electronical and electrical waste). Both these rapidly growing waste streams are now part of the Convention’s prior informed consent (PIC) procedure. Work at this meeting will focus on ironing out the details, including on guidelines for the environmentally-sound management of these wastes, as well as other waste streams. Discussions on how to modernize and improve the PIC procedure will also continue.
The Rotterdam Convention has increasingly struggled in recent years to list chemicals in the Convention, which would make them subject to its PIC procedure. At this meeting, parties will consider a new proposal to amend the Convention by adding a new annex. This annex would essentially take a “coalition of the willing” approach, by allowing chemicals the be listed and for parties to opt in or out of the PIC procedure.
The Stockholm Convention is the only treaty of the three that eliminates or restricts the production and use of chemicals. It will consider proposals to list Dechlorane Plus, a flame retardant, and UV-328, an ultraviolet filter used in plastics. Both proposal are to eliminate production and use of the chemicals, with some specific exemptions set out after deliberations by the scientific subsidiary body, the POPs Review Committee.
The meetings will take place 1-12 May in Geneva, Switzerland.
View past and future events
Past event
1st Session of the INC for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
1st Session of the Criteria Expert Group (CEG-1) for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
2nd Session of the INC for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
2nd Session of the Criteria Expert Group (CEG-2) for Persistent Organic Pollutants
Past event
3rd Session of the INC for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
4th Session of the INC for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
5th Session of the INC for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
6th Session of the INC for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
7th Session of the INC for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
1st Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP1) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
2nd Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP2) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
2nd Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-2)
Past event
3rd Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP3) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
3rd Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-3)
Past event
4th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-4)
Past event
4th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP4) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
5th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-5)
Past event
6th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-6)
Past event
5th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP5) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
7th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-7)
Past event
8th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-8)
Past event
2013 Meetings of Basel Convention COP11, Rotterdam Convention COP6, Stockholm Convention COP6, and ExCOPs2
Past event
9th Meeting of the Stockholm Convention’s Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-9)
Past event
POPRC and CRC Joint Meeting, and CRC-9
Past event
10th Meeting of the Stockholm Convention’s Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-10)
Past event
2015 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
Past event
11th Meeting of the Stockholm Convention’s Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-11)
Past event
12th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-12)
Past event
2017 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
Past event
13th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-13)
Past event
14th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-14) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Past event
2019 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
Past event
15th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention (POPRC-15)
Past event
16th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention (POPRC-16)
Past event
2021 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
Past event
17th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention (POPRC-17)
Past event
Face-to-Face Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
Past event
18th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention (POPRC-18)
Upcoming event
2023 Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
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