2023 Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)

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.