Highlights and images for 28 April 2025

By some estimates, about 8% of deaths worldwide can be attributed to hazardous chemicals. This is the worst case scenario, and health and environmental harms range widely. Exposure can come from using a chemical, like applying a pesticide, using everyday products, or handling hazardous wastes. The Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions meetings began to try to tighten the regulatory rules for global chemical and waste trade and management.

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

The opening ceremony laid bare the challenges. Many spoke of the growing volumes of wastes and risks posed by chemicals capable of travelling in the air and water. There are other, less technical, challenges. Many spoke of “difficult geopolitical circumstances,” worrying that international cooperation is needed more than ever, but is difficult to realize.

The Stockholm Convention started its central work: eliminating or restricting the production and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). It began with chlorpyrifos, a pesticide produced by several countries totalling around 50,000 tons per year. There was early support for eliminating this chemical, but several countries noted the need to use it to manage pests and protect food security. One country openly opposed listing the pesticide on these grounds. A contact group will take this discussion further, and is likely to be given additional work in the coming days.

The Basel Convention took up its work to help parties safely dispose of hazardous wastes and wastes contaminated with POPs. Some technical guidelines could help define safe methods for managing very modern wastes, such as the lithium batteries that help power the clean energy transition. Work resumed on how to capture and guide countries’ recovery, recycling, and/or reclamation activities. There is significant global trade in materials destined for these types of operations. To date, the Basel Convention has often focused on the transboundary movement of waste for its disposal. This work may help address concerns about regulatory cracks, where materials are claimed to be traded for recycling, but end up disposed of in the importing country.

Side events were held throughout the day. One drew attention to human rights-based approaches to chemicals and wastes, while another considered how to finance action to protect people and the planet. Electronic and electrical waste, used batteries, and short-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were also the focus of side events. An evening event considered the extent to which publicly-available data could be used to manage POPs.