October 1, 2024
At the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, it was agreed to minimize the adverse effects of chemicals on humans and the environment by 2020. To implement this so-called ‘2020 target’, the ‘Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management’ (SAICM) was established in 2006. As the mandate for SAICM ended in 2020, work on a successor framework began already in 2015. Due to the COVID pandemic, among other things, negotiations on the specific design were protracted. Finally, at the end of the 5th International Conference on Chemicals (ICCM5) on 30 September 2023 in Bonn under the German presidency, the ‘Global Framework on Chemicals’ (GFC) was adopted with the’ Bonn Declaration for a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste’.
The GFC was also given the mandate to develop indicators for the goals and targets adopted by the conference. This task is now being tackled. The GFC can also draw on the results of our project on indicators for future global chemicals and waste management, which was commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency. In brief: The indicators combine the concept of sustainable chemistry with the requirements of sound management of chemicals and waste. A list of the 23 most important indicators from this project was recently submitted to the GFC by the German representative in the responsible working group, Dr. Christopher Blum (Federal Environment Agency). We are pleased that the indicators developed in this project now serve as a basis for the responsible GFC working group (Open-Ended Ad Hoc Group on Measurability and Indicators). We want to continue to support this important approach of the GFC and are therefore planning a scientific publication in which the indicators developed in the project will be presented in the context of the global chemical policy debate.
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