The full extent of environmental and health risks from pollution are largely unknown. Partly, it’s a problem of scale. There are tens of thousands of chemicals registered for use, dozens of major and growing waste streams, and untold incidents of air, water, and soil pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 2 million lives and 53 million disability-adjusted life-years were lost in 2019 due to chemical exposure. But, the WHO was quick to add that data are only available for a small number of the chemicals that people are exposed to everyday.
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This uncertainty has led to calls for a global science-policy body to help channel the highest-caliber science to policymakers. It would join the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The ultimate goal is to synthesize available science and highlight unknowns to support decision-making for policy-relevant problems.
This work was due to be completed in June 2024. At this resumed session, there is a narrowed list of issues accompanied by many calls for delegates to focus solely on what’s necessary to establish the panel. Other issues, such as partnerships or financial arrangements, some suggest, could be handled by the panel itself.
With this more focused scope, delegates set to work in three contact groups.
- Contact group 1, focusing on membership and functions of the bodies of the panel, decision-making and related rules of procedure;
- Contact group 2, focusing on other foundational elements, such as scope and functions of the panel, and related rules of procedure, and the draft decision to establish the panel; and
- Contact group 3, taking up other draft rules of procedure, the draft decision to forward the draft rules, procedures and policies to the panel, and a draft decision on arrangements for the interim period.
Early work moved slowly, with only a few days available before an Intergovernmental Meeting that will formally establish the panel.
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All ENB photos are free to use with attribution. For photos of this side event, please use: Photo by IISD/ENB - Angeles Estrada Vigil
Plenary
Edgardo Ortuño Silva, Minister of Environment, Uruguay, and Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP
Omotunde Adeola, Nigeria
Aseel Abo-Taleb, Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP (CYMG)
Media during the opening of the plenary
Edgardo Ortuño Silva, Minister of Environment, Uruguay
Chinkie Golle, International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN)
Christina Charlotte Tolfsen, Norway
Saeed Ahmed Al-Zahrani, Saudi Arabia
Gladys Lorena Terrazas Arnez, Indigenous Peoples
Lia Maria Paola, Jill Hanna, and Lilian Corra, Global Alliance on Health and Pollution
Anahit Aleksandryan, Armenia
Anna Odur, Association of Uganda Professional Women in Agriculture and Environment (AUPWAE)
Working Groups
Aly Mohamed, Gulf Research Center
Victor Alfonso Rey Arismendy, Colombia
Oleg Senchenko, Russian Federation
Océane Dayer, Switzerland
Tamim Alothimin, Saudi Arabia
Luciana Melchert, Brazil
Working Group Co-Facilitator Keima Gardiner (Trinidad and Tobago)
Working Group Co-Facilitator Miguel Eduardo Ruiz Botero (Colombia)
Maria AlJishi, Saudi Arabia
Delegates from Uruguay
Delegates consulting
Mathieu Ortega, UK, conferring with delegates from Switzerland
Working Group Co-Facilitator Toks Akinseye (UK)
Between Sessions
Flag Ceremony
Around the Venue
