International chemicals management

The fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) was hosted in Bonn by the German Presidency in September 2023. The ICCM5 multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral negotiations resulted in the milestone adoption of the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC) and the high-level Bonn Declaration for a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste. The GFC envisions a planet free of the harmful impacts of chemicals and contains five strategic objectives and 28 targets. It joins the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions and the Minamata Convention as foundational multilateral environmental agreements to combat the global pollution crisis. Unlike the others, the GFC is not binding under international law. However, the GFC is noteworthy because intergovernmental organisations, the private sector and civil society participated alongside UN member states as equal partners in the negotiation process. The GFC was adopted by consensus and is considered politically binding. As implementation of the GFC begins, the focus is on strengthening cross-sector collaboration, leveraging synergies with other environmental agreements, establishing the GFC in key decision-making bodies of the United Nations and involving the private sector more in taking responsibility. Key implementation goals include building institutional capacities for safe chemicals management in countries around the world as well as shifting chemicals production to align with the principles of sustainable chemistry.

At the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, it was agreed that chemicals should be used and produced in ways that minimise significant adverse effects on human health and the environment (WSSD 2020 Goal). At the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York, the WSSD 2020 Goal was incorporated in extended form in the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda as target 12.4. The target states that by 2020, the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle should be achieved, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and their release to air, water and soil should be significantly reduced in order to minimise their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.

The first International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM1), held in 2006 in Dubai, adopted the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) to enable international cooperation on cross-cutting issues of chemical safety under the umbrella of the United Nations and achieve the 2020 chemicals goal. SAICM was a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder policy framework for chemicals management with non-binding character under international law. It supplemented internationally binding agreements in the fields of chemicals and waste such as the Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata Conventions as well as the Montreal Protocol, which together only regulate a comparatively small number of substances, and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. SAICM was intended to close the remaining regulatory gaps of the binding agreements. In doing so, it focused on two core elements: firstly, the global establishment of institutionalised chemicals control systems; secondly, the responsible handling of issues of concern such as pharmaceuticals in the environment, hazardous pesticides in agriculture or e-waste, which are not covered by internationally binding rules.

After ICCM1 adopted SAICM, the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) continued to steer and monitor the SAICM process. As the decision-making body, ICCM takes decisions on the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders and sectors on cross-cutting issues of international chemicals safety. For SAICM, it was comparable to the conference of the parties of other international environmental agreements. The SAICM Secretariat was set up at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Geneva to support the practical implementation of the strategic approach.

The SAICM objectives were not reached by the target year 2020. This was confirmed by UNEP's Global Chemicals Outlook II, published in April 2019. SAICM's mandate expired at the end of 2020. The decision on the post-2020 future of international chemicals and waste management was given over to ICCM5 under German presidency. Originally, ICCM5 was meant to take place in 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it had to be postponed, first to 2021 and ultimately until September 2023. ICCM4 convened an intersessional pre-negotiation process in 2015 to prepare for ICCM5. A total of four intersessional process meetings were held, the last directly before ICCM5. In these pre-negotiation meetings, documents were prepared to update SAICM. ICCM5 adopted the update, the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC, see above).

Adopting the GFC as an ambitious framework to combat the pollution crisis was a victory. Now it is time for the community of international stakeholders to implement its targets. As it did for SAICM, ICCM will steer GFC implementation at the International Conference (IC). IC1 will be held in 2026 under Pakistani presidency. One of the main objectives of the GFC, like SAICM, is building capacity for safe chemicals management, above all in countries of the Global South. To finance these activities, the ICCM5 created the GFC Fund, sourced from voluntary financial contributions from member countries and other stakeholders. Since October 2024, countries of the Global South have submitted project proposals for GFC implementation to the fund. Other funding sources that support safe chemicals management globally include UNEP’s Special Programme and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). Cross-sectoral cooperation is vital for implementation of the GFC. The Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) reflects this importance within the UN organisations. The IOMC member organisations include WHO, FAO, UNITAR, UNDP, UNIDO, UNEP, the World Bank, the OECD, ILO and the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. IOMC was founded in 1995 with the aim of supporting safe chemicals management globally and raising awareness of its importance in the member organisations. The IOMC supports the development of implementation programmes, which were adopted by ICCM5 as an important vehicle for taking action on the GFC. One challenge in combating the pollution crisis is the lack of political and public awareness around it and the corresponding gap in finance. To tackle this challenge, the BMUV worked with IOMC to hold the third Berlin Forum on Chemicals and Sustainability – Implementing the Global Framework on Chemicals in September 2024. One year after the adoption of the GFC, the high-level forum took stock of progress on implementation. It also brought in new stakeholders from the private and finance sectors for dialogue.