Global talks kick off on hazardous chemicals and waste management

GENEVA (AN) — More than 2,000 delegates from 180 nations began two weeks of wrangling on Monday over three global treaties intended to protect human health and environment from hazardous chemicals and wastes.

Negotiations and decision-making began Monday under the science-based, legally binding Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions with an eye toward fulfilling some related aspects of the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

These include listing new chemicals for elimination based on serious concerns to human health and the environment, adding more chemicals and pesticides to those that must be used with prior informed consent, and developing technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of plastic and other wastes.

Some of the main targets of the Stockholm Convention – eliminating the use of PCBs in equipment by 2025 and better managing liquids containing PCBs and equipment contaminated with them by 2028 – are fast approaching, said Rolph Payet, the executive secretary of the three conventions.

"It is thus imperative for the international community, donors and the funding institutions to accelerate action to assist parties in achieving these targets," he said.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were once widely used in buildings and technical components, but have been banned in most countries as highly persistent environmental toxins that cause cancer and reproductive harm. In 2018 researchers found PCBs weakened half of the world's killer whale populations.

Reginald Hernaus, president of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, told delegates the year "2030 is getting near – we really have to escalate our actions to achieve these overarching Sustainable Development Goals."

The talks, which run through May 12, pick up on discussions last June in the Swedish capital Stockholm about finding ways to confront a trifecta of pollution, global warming and species losses.

Those discussions marked a half-century since Sweden hosted the first world conference in 1972 that treated the environment as a major issue.

Delegates will consider the potential adoption of technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of plastic waste and wastes containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, which are highly toxic chemicals that don't easily biograde.

These include PCBs, dioxins and furans, plus DDT and other pesticides that lead to developmental defects, cancer and other problems in humans and animals.

More than 100 organizations from 50 nations sent an open letter to top U.N. environment officials saying they lack "a noticeable and inappropriate absence of ambition" toward drafting a new treaty to address the plastic pollution crisis.

The letter also cites a "relative lack of transparency regarding who is advising the work" of the head of U.N. Environment Program and the secretariat for an intergovernmental negotiating committee.

Delegates from 175 nations to the U.N. Environment Assembly last year voted unanimously to devise a legally binding global treaty that attempts to cleanse the world of plastic pollution.

A spectrum of interests

The Basel Convention, which includes 53 nations, regulates the export and import of hazardous waste. The Rotterdam Convention, with 72 nations, regulates information about the export and import of hazardous chemicals.

The Stockholm Convention, covering 152 nations, takes aim at chemicals that can travel long distances in the environment and don’t break down easily.

Managed by a single secretariat in Geneva, the agreements – which have fewer nations that are actual signatories than those are parties to them – draw delegates from a wide range of interests.

Some seek stronger regulations for hazardous chemicals and wastes; others want looser restrictions or exemptions.

Among the topics are plans to restrict or ban three new chemicals: methoxychlor, a pesticide, and two industrial chemicals, Dechlorane Plus and UV-328.

Methoxychlor replaced DDT as a repellent against a wide variety of pests found on crops, livestock and pets, but it's highly toxic to invertebrates and fish and is found in human serum and breast milk and as far away as the polar regions.

Dechlorane Plus is a flame retardant and UV-328 is a UV absorbent. Both are heavily used as plastic additives in cars, industrial machines and medical devices.

Other proposals call for adding requirements for people to give prior informed consent before allowing the use of four pesticides, two severely hazardous pesticide formulations, and one industrial chemical.

“Managing safely such hazardous chemicals and pesticides is one of the main objectives of the Rotterdam Convention," said Christine Fuell, the treaty's ad interim executive secretary.