The UN is exploring how to bring together the various global chemical treaties, but the pace of change is too slow.
For the first time, the Conferences of the Parties to three principal treaties for chemicals management met in back-to-back sessions from 26 April to 10 May in Geneva. This “extraordinary” meeting of the parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions was the latest effort to foster synergies between the three Conventions, each of which address different but related aspects of managing toxic chemicals at the global level. Billed by some as the “Super COP”, the meeting of the three Conventions concluded with a mixed bag of outcomes and signals for the future of the global chemicals and waste cluster.