Highlights and images for 2 February 2023

Delegates rolled up their sleeves to try to realize a sense of concrete progress before this Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) meeting concludes.

Efforts in one contact group focused on setting up the work to be completed before the next OEWG and beyond. As one Co-Chair put it, they were working on their “shopping list.” The discussion was based on an outline of a “zero draft.” The outline is heavily inspired by the documents that establish the governance and other arrangements for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It sets out the scale of work to be completed. The list is substantial, from institutional arrangements to procedures for approving assessments and engaging with stakeholders.

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Delegates in that contact group took up discussing and amending the outline of work ahead. They also considered when they would take up the substance in each section. While this group discussed concrete next steps, hoping to complete negotiations in just two further meetings, the other contact group discussed intersessional work that could help them make progress on the functions of the panel, among other issues.

Discussions on the objective appeared to make headway. While the text is still bracketed, meaning not yet agreed, there is growing consensus that the panel’s objective will include strengthening the science-policy interface to contribute to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution for the protection of human health and the environment. There is ongoing debate on whether “pollution” should be scoped out a bit more, perhaps by specifying that the panel consider pollution in air, lands, soil, and oceans, and not other forms of pollution, like light, noise or radioactive pollution.