Over 2,000 delegates from around the world gathered at the UN in Geneva on Monday to discuss how best to curb chemical pollution, which has had increasingly dire consequences for health and the environment.
Over the course of two weeks of meetings, countries are expected to make progress on adding new so-called “forever chemicals” to the list of toxic substances to be banned or restricted under the Stockholm Convention – the global treaty protecting human health and the environment from long-lasting chemical pollution.
They will also seek ways to further regulate the use of chemicals and pesticides under the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous chemicals management; and developing technical guidelines on the sound management of plastic and e-waste under the Basel Convention, on transboundary hazardous waste management.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2019, a small number of chemicals for which data are available were estimated to have caused two million deaths, including from heart and respiratory diseases, as well as cancers.
Among other important issues, the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Stockholm Convention, will discuss the development of compliance procedures and mechanisms, and review a range of recommendations stemming from the second evaluation of the Convention.
This will include evaluating the continued use of the insecticide DDT – still in use to control malaria in some countries – based on the report on the work of the DDT expert group; and the report on progress towards the elimination of the toxic organic chemical group, known as PCBs, and the draft strategy to meet the 2025 and 2028 goals to eliminate PCBs, set out in the Stockholm Convention.