Highlights and images for 1 May 2025

It was a difficult day for experts trying to eliminate new persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and protect health and the environment. There are three POPs recommended for elimination under the Stockholm Convention. Each is complex in its own way - technically, like medium-chained chlorinated paraffins, or politically, like the pesticide chlorpyrifos.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

Delegates also grappled with a new request - to reopen a listing decision and allow new uses for a POP. Years ago, the airline industry assured parties that they would not need UV-328 for adhesives and water-seal tape. The POP was listed for elimination. Flash forward: 4000 aircraft with extremely small amounts of this POP are destined for delivery to 60 countries. The supply chain proved too complex for industry to completely scrub UV-328 from its products. The dilemma wasn’t really about the amount of POPs released. Rather, parties debated how to protect the Convention from a dangerous precedent that could signal to industry that it can ask for exemptions after a POP is listed.

This worry hung in the air as parties moved on to the decisions to eliminate three other POPs, each with a list of exemptions that seem to be expanding from the scientific assessments of the POPs Review Committee (POPRC). New exemptions were requested for the use of chlorpyrifos to protect pineapple crops, wheat, and rapeseed from multiple pests. A POPRC member worried the Committee’s work “is being devalued” since these uses were assessed and alternatives found to be available. 

The Basel Convention continued to try to delineate the various disposal and recovery (and potentially recycling or reclamation) operations for wastes. This work is to help update the Convention in response to the e-waste and plastic waste amendments. In discussions on used tyres, however, delegates could not agree to refer to microplastics.

Meanwhile, the high-level segment had ministers focusing on pollution, circularity, and means of implementation, exchanging national experiences and programs, from incentivizing organic agriculture and zero-waste, to engaging with industry. Many stressed the importance of local initiatives in the face of dwindling resources, extended producer responsibility, and regional and multilateral engagement.

Children and youth were central in the ministerial discussions as well as in several events around the venue. A multistakeholder workshop explored the data and policy priorities to protect children’s environmental health. Another highlighted various approaches for the Stockholm Convention to protect children’s health. 

Following on from ministers’ call for financing, delegates heard of India’s experience in updating its national implementation plan, a common and challenging task for many countries. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) assisted in this project. The GEF also launched its Global Elimination Programme for polychlorinated biphenyls, “an ambitious initiative that will help countries meet their 2025 and 2028 elimination targets.”

Ship recycling was the topic for a high-level event, given its importance for this Basel Convention meeting in light of the entry into force of the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. Another event considered coordination with the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.