Chemicals & Wastes
When used improperly or disposed of unsafely, chemicals pose significant risks for both the environment and human health. Toxic chemicals are found in all ecosystems on Earth, including Antarctica and the most remote seas, affecting biodiversity, agricultural production, water quality, and human health. Over 100 million man-made chemicals and chemical formulations are used in every sector of the industrial economy. Many chemicals, such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury, travel over large distances through air, water currents, and in migratory species. Some POPs can remain in the human body for more than 50 years. Mercury, an element, is infinitely persistent. While chemicals and waste are major contributors to world economies, their sound management is essential to avoiding risks to human health and ecosystems and substantial costs to national economies.
Events and Articles
Showing 41 - 50 of 205 results
OEWG1-2: Science-Policy Panel to Contribute Further to the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste and to Prevent Pollution
In their discussions toward the establishment of a science-policy panel to contribute to the sound management of chemicals and waste and the prevention of pollution, delegates focused on the scope and functions of the panel. Capacity building attracted particular attention, and was supported as an additional function of the panel.
63rd Meeting of the GEF Council
The GEF Council endorsed $65 million for biodiversity projects, including more than $18 million to support the development of biodiversity finance plans in 26 countries. GEF Council members, meeting virtually, also approved the establishment of a new Gustavo Fonseca Youth Conservation Leadership program to support the education of promising young conservationists from developing countries.
1st Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-1)
While most delegations seem to agree that there are negative effects surrounding plastic pollution, it was clear they have yet to find common ground on the details and contents of key substantive themes that will determine the scope and guide the implementation of the future international treaty.
OEWG1: Science-Policy Panel to Contribute Further to the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste and to Prevent Pollution
This meeting provided the opportunity for Member States and other stakeholders to state their views on what the future science-policy panel to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution should look like. Many agreed it should be lean, flexible, and policy-relevant, not policy prescriptive.
18th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention (POPRC-18)
Through its expert reviews, the Committee advanced all but one of the chemicals under consideration to their next stage of being labelled as a persistent organic pollutant. Two chemicals were recommended for listing under the Stockholm Convention: Dechlorane Plus, a flame retardant, and UV-328, an ultraviolet filter used in plastics.
18th Meeting of the Chemical Review Committee (CRC-18)
The Chemical Review Committee faced a lengthy agenda as it reviewed a dozen hazardous chemicals and pesticides to determine if they should be listed under the Rotterdam Convention’s prior informed consent procedure, which could limit their trade, if deemed necessary to protect human health and the environment.
Can Global Chemicals Governance Help Phaseouts in Other Sectors?
“Forever chemicals,” aka PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) are now mainstream news (for example in the Washington Post and on BBC). Yet, comprehensive discussion of the impacts of chemicals on our environment and health tends to be confined to dedicated outlets and niche literature.
4th Meeting of the Intersessional Process for Considering SAICM and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020
Participants made progress on the outline for a future framework on chemicals and waste to guide global efforts for years to come, and agreed to reconvene in early 2023 for further deliberations to enable the framework’s adoption at the International Conference on Chemicals Management in September 2023.
62nd Meeting of the GEF Council
GEF Council Members endorsed the more than USD 5 billion replenishment for the next four-year period of the GEF and adopted Work Programs worth more than USD 238 million, launching projects that will contribute to a green and blue recovery and direct significant resources to small island developing States and least developed countries.
Face-to-Face Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
The Basel Convention flexed its institutional muscle, while the Rotterdam Convention managed to add just two of the seven chemicals proposed to its prior informed consent procedure. The Stockholm Convention continued to list new chemicals, but it now faces the downstream consequences of that success: new chemicals bring added implementation challenges.