Photo: Unsplash
01 Jun 2022 Speech Chemicals & pollution action

Sound chemicals and waste management for a healthy planet

Photo: Unsplash
Speech delivered by: Inger Andersen
For: Opening of the high-level segment of the COPs of BRS conventions
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Ms. Annika Strandhäll, Minister for Climate and the Environment Sweden

Mr. Qu Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Presidents of the BRS COPs,

Rolph Payet, BRS Executive Secretary

Friends,

In a time of what can only be called a great crisis, Stockholm+50 is a moment to reflect not on where we go from here – because we know we require a system transformation to sustainability – but on how we get there, quickly.

The triple planetary crisis – climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste – leaves us with no wiggle room. There is a 50 per cent chance that we will hit 1.5 C of global warming in the next five years. Nature, as the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has told us, is in unprecedented decline.

The challenge of pollution cannot be separated out. It is a key driver of biodiversity loss. The sources of pollution are often the same as those that cause climate change. One in six deaths each year come from pollution. We must tap into the spirit of the 1972 Stockholm conference, which declared that “the just struggle of the peoples of all countries against pollution should be supported.”

Friends,

The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm – or BRS – conventions responded to this call. The BRS conventions embody the life-cycle approach to the management of chemicals and waste: from prevention and minimization, to restrictions and environmentally sound use, to elimination and reuse and recycling.

The work of the conventions is becoming even more important. According to the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the production of chemicals has risen 50-fold since 1950 and is projected to triple again by 2050. In this context, it is good news that the Global Environment Facility allocated 15 per cent of funding to chemicals and waste management in its latest replenishment. My thanks.

Friends,

UNEP is committed to supporting the sound management of chemicals and waste and implementing the BRS conventions. And UNEA 5.2 delivered key resolutions that will help us pull together.

The science-policy panel on chemicals and waste and pollution will be what IPBES is for biodiversity and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is for climate. Close cooperation with the BRS conventions will be critical for this panel.

UNEA resolution 5/14 specifically promotes cooperation and coordination with regional and international conventions. The Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments are a key example of where we can leverage the efforts and experience of an existing convention. 

The UNEA resolution on a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution is also a big step forward. The ad hoc open-ended working group meeting (OEWG) in Dakar, just concluded, has kick-started the work of the intergovernmental negotiating committee. My ask to the committee was to learn from past processes, including in the chemicals and waste community, and to arrive at an ambitious international instrument. Cooperation with the BRS conventions will help to deliver an agreement that can facilitate system change in an inclusive manner.  

We must also now deliver a new framework on sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 – work that the pandemic delayed. In this regard, the 4th Intersessional Process (IP4) of SAICM will be held at the end of August to resume deliberations toward the 5th International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5).

We have the momentum to tackle the planetary crisis of pollution through the work of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, the expectations of a new global framework through the SAICM process, the call for the establishment of science-policy platform, and the realization of a legally binding instrument on plastics. The theme chosen for the 2022 BRS COPs couldn’t be more appropriate: “Global Agreements for a Healthy Planet: Sound management of chemicals and waste”.

Friends,

We share both a common goal and a common bond. Together, we have much work ahead of us to prevent, control, and manage pollution by hazardous chemicals and wastes. And together, it is work we must do to improve human well-being, safeguard the integrity of the environment, and provide prosperity for all. Your presence here shows you are committed to carrying out this work, through the BRS conventions and beyond.

Thank you.