What does 2023 hold for international chemicals management?

In the eleventh part of our 2023 Global Outlook series of special reports, managing editor for Europe, Leigh Stringer, takes a look at what is expected to be an important year for international work on chemicals management

As countries and regions around the world propose, consider and adopt more and more national legislation on chemicals, international level work can often fall under the radar. However, keeping a close eye on developments this year will be key, with several major international instruments in the works that could change the course of how chemicals are produced and used globally.  

Post-2020 global chemicals framework 

An international framework for chemicals and waste was supposed to be adopted in 2020 to supersede the current one – the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Managements (Saicm). When adopted in 2007, 2020 was set as Saicm's mandated deadline. However, negotiations for its successor were delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Negotiations have now resumed, and this year will see stakeholders gather for the fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) where a new framework will be agreed and adopted. The meeting could be the beginning of a more ambitious, action-oriented global framework, after it was generally agreed that Saicm had failed to achieve its goal by the deadline date.  

Ahead of this, the fourth meeting of the Intersessional Process (IP4) – discussions and negotiations to inform the post 2020 framework agreement – will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from 27 February–2 March. 

Draft Intersessional Process texts for the framework propose an annex that sets out specific targets for industry, something that has not been explicit in Saicm. 

If included, countries around the world could use these targets as a base for policies and legislation, as well as to guide companies in their own work to manage chemicals and waste.  

Science policy panel 

UN member states agreed to establish an intergovernmental science-policy panel on chemicals, waste and pollution at a United Nations Environment Assembly (Unea) meeting in Nairobi in 2021 – a move that was welcomed by stakeholders across the board. 

Pollution is one of Unep’s three strategic pillars, alongside climate change and biodiversity. The panel will aim to address concerns that pollution, chemicals and waste continue to receive less attention and resources, and are not adequately addressed by science policy panels, like those of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ipbes). 

The "principal functions" set out for the panel to undertake include:  

• horizon scanning, that is a systematic examination of information to identify potential threats, risks, emerging issues and opportunities, and identify issues of concern and propose evidence-based options for solutions to address them, where possible;  
• making assessments on the character and scale of particular issues, and where appropriate and possible, providing potential solutions, and generating outputs that inform all stakeholders, to support them in addressing the issue; and  
• provide up-to-date and relevant information, catalyse scientific research, facilitate communication between scientists and policymakers, explain and disseminate findings for different audiences and raise public awareness. 

Unea organised a working group (OEWG) in 2022 to prepare proposals for the panel. Following an initial meeting (OEWG 1) in Nairobi in October last year, the group met in Bangkok, Thailand on 30 January–3 February to address procedural matters, including how it will elect its chair and bureau, as well as the rules of procedure for the conduct of its work (OEWG 1.2). 

OEWG 2 will take place later this year to further define these elements, while a third is planned for 2024. Adoption of the science policy panel is scheduled for the end of 2024, early 2025.  

Global treaty on plastics pollution 

During last year’s Unea, environment ministers from 175 countries adopted the resolution End plastic pollution: Towards an international legally binding instrument. This sets out plans to develop a global treaty by 2024. The agreement has been hailed as the most significant since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. 

Countries and regions involved in negotiating the treaty have called for the inclusion of measures that eliminate the use of some plastic products and chemical additives. 

Their interventions came during the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), which took place in Punta del Este, Uruguay, between 28 November and 2 December last year.  

The INC’s second meeting will take place in May in Paris, while the third will be held in December at Unep’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.  

While the aim of the treaty is to address plastic pollution, particularly in the marine environment, negotiators are considering plastics production and chemical additives to make and provide function to plastics. If these discussions progress, and negotiators include any related targets in the final text, companies producing and using plastics and plastic additives could be affected.  

Stockholm Convention 

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants was adopted on 22 May 2001 and entered into force on 17 May 2004. 

It is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife, and have harmful impacts on human health or on the environment. 

The 11th Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention will be held in May, alongside those of fellow treaties, the Basel and Rotterdam Conventions. Signatories to the Stockholm Convention will consider the recommendations by its Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) to list methoxychlor, dechlorane plus and UV-328, as well as the recommendations related to decaBDE, SCCPs and PFOS, its salts and PFOSF. 

Following this, the nineteenth meeting of the POPRC is scheduled to take place in October in Rome.  

The committee will consider draft risk management evaluations on: 

• chlorinated paraffins with carbon chain lengths in the range C14–17 and chlorination levels at or exceeding 45% chlorine by weight; and 
• long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), their salts and related compounds. 

It will decide whether to recommend them for listing under the convention for either elimination, restriction or reduction.  

This article was amended on 3 May 2023 to correct the date of the second Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting of the plastics pollution treaty in Paris