Towards a new intergovernmental platform to stop chemical pollution worldwide

Off the radar of public discussion, the complex world of chemical regulation is at a turning point. Historical perhaps. A ” IPCC Chemistry »Like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it should come into force in June 2024. Missions, composition and procedures are strategic issues that will be discussed from December 11 to 15 in Nairobi (Kenya) under the auspices of the United Nations. Environment Protection Program (UNEP), at the last meeting of the working group composed of state delegates.

In July 2020, there was a chemical contamination It has been identified, along with climate and biodiversity, as one of three planetary crises – ecological and interconnected. THE “The toxic fumes of economic growth.”Fernando Coimbra, President of the Permanent Representatives Committee of UNEP, then asserts, It causes millions of premature deaths every year.. More precisely: 8% of the total number of deaths on Earth.

Cancer, cardiovascular disease, infertility, diabetes, obesity, brain damage…: The bill is prohibitive for society. According to a 2017 study by Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, the cost of chemical-related illnesses exceeds 10% of global gross domestic product. This is more than ten thousand billion euros per year.

suggest “ Actions on a global scale »

Although the IPCC has been in existence since 1988 and the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) since 2012, Chemistry lacked an international platform to match the challenges.

This is Resolution 5/8 of the UN Environment Assembly, which in March 2022 finally wrote ” Expert Group on the Science-Policy Interface for the Rational Management of Chemicals and Wastes and Pollution Prevention » Or, in English, the Science Policy Panel… Purpose: To offer “ political decisions and actions on a global scale”, explanation Martin Scheringer, an environmental chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, who came up with the idea in 2004.

State delegates, researchers, non-governmental organizations… many actors behind the scenes Concerned about the role of the chemical industry in future panel activities. Learn: The ability to block them, a drill where he uses decades of proven strategies. They particularly fear the dangers of regulatory capture, which often sees representatives of the business world participating in processes that seek to impose restrictions on them. How will experts be selected? panel? What about their potential conflicts of interest?