Highlights and images for 24 September 2023

“We’re finally in the home stretch,” proclaimed Intersessional Process (IP) Co-Chair Kay Williams (UK) as she opened the final IP plenary on Sunday evening to go through draft recommendations to be forwarded the Fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5). The text of the draft framework instrument on the management of chemicals and waste takes into account the portions agreed ad referendum during the IP. The Co-Chairs then led the plenary through a paragraph-by-paragraph review of the text, seeking to resolve differences wherever possible to produce a “cleaner” text for ICCM5.

The plenary worked into the night.

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

The evening plenary capped their efforts during the day to break logjams in several portions of the consolidated document produced by the previous session of the IP held in Nairobi, Kenya in March 2023. In the morning, the thematic group on institutional arrangements managed to reach consensus on the sections on mechanisms to support implementation and issues of concern by agreeing on text linking the two.

During the morning, the plenary held an initial discussion of the section on capacity building. The Co-Chairs offered alternative text from their non-paper, but when delegates disagreed on whether to use it as the basis for further negotiation, the issue was left for the evening plenary to consider.

Also during the day the plenary, the finance thematic group and an informal group on targets all tried—unsuccessfully—to reach consensus on framework targets on data, information, transparency and finance.