Negotiations among China, Canada, the EU and Argentina, during the 2017 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

The fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Basel Convention, ninth meeting of the COP to the Rotterdam Convention, and ninth meeting of the COP to the Stockholm Convention will convene back-to-back 29 April to 10 May 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland. The meetings, informally known as the “Triple COPs,” will include joint sessions on issues that are on the agendas of at least two of the three conventions, including technical assistance, financial resources and mechanisms, and programmes of work and budgets.

The theme of the meetings will be “Clean Planet, Healthy People: Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste.” Key issues to be addressed include:

• the listing of new chemicals under the Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions;
• adoption of technical guidelines under the Basel Convention; and
• financial and technical support for implementation of all three conventions.

Delegates will also resume their work to develop compliance mechanisms for both the Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions – a thorny issue that has eluded consensus for several years.

This issue is discussed in detail in our summary and analysis of the 2017 meetings of the Triple COPs.