Search

Many countries and regions have set up regulatory and policy frameworks to achieve sound chemicals and waste management. In addition to national and regional efforts, the international community has taken concerted joint actions to address specific issues of concern, including chemicals that can be transported over long distances by wind and water, are transported through global trade in resources, products and waste, or are used or are present in many countries.Substantial progress has been made by the international community, including

Chemicals are widely used in daily life. They have a unique importance in the health-care sector, where they are used as disinfectants, cleaners, laboratory re­agents, sterilants, pesticides, medicines and pharma­ceuticals and in medical devices and equipment. The hazards of these chemicals are not well understood by health professionals nor incorporated into procure­ment decisions.To minimize these hazards, the health sector has been taking steps to promote and implement sustainable healthcare within their institutions and to collaborate externally with suppliers and manufactures

Curtain raising video of the third meeting of the intersessional process held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, from 1 to 4 October 2019. Regional meetings and technical briefings took place on 30 September 2019. These meetings support stakeholders in their efforts to elaborate the future arrangements of the Strategic Approach and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 for consideration and adoption at the next session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5)

The Global Chemicals Outlook II – From Legacies to Innovative Solutions: Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, mandated by the UN Environment Assembly in 2016, seeks to alert policymakers and other stakeholders to the critical role of the sound management of chemicals and waste in sustainable development. It takes stock of global trends as well as progress made and gaps in achieving the global goal to minimize the adverse impacts from chemicals and waste by 2020. The Global Chemicals

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) defines single use plastic products as “an umbrella term for different types of products that are typically used once before being thrown away or recycled” (UNEP 2018), which includes food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups, cutlery and shopping bags. It has been estimated that about 100-150 million tonnes of plastics are produced for single use products and about 8 million tonnes of plastics are dumped into the oceans every year (Plastics Oceans 2019)There is a need

On International Women’s Day, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury launched a video on how women are more negatively impacted by mercury and what needs to be done to better protect, support and promote gender equality. watch the videoThe Minamata Convention tackles mercury throughout its entire life cycle, fighting gender issues every step of the way. This includes supporting gender-specific trainings and helping implement National Action Plans with a gender perspective -- with special focus on the problem

Better waste management offers great potential to help us meet the sustainability challenges ahead. Targeting decision-makers and many other inter-connected sectors, the Global Waste Management Outlook (GWMO) was launched at the World Congress of The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) in Belgium on 7 September, 2015 . The publication also contains two summary documents, making the information concise and accessible.Developed by UNEP in collaboration with ISWA in response to the UNEP Governing Council request of February 2013, its goal was

This novel publication provides an overview of the knowledge gap and enforcement challenges in the illegal trade of toxic, hazardous and severely restricted chemicals, as well as in non-existing or low areas of chemical regulations.Chemicals surround us in our daily lives providing benefit to people and society. However, chemicals can contaminate all components of ecosystems and are implicated in a range of acute and chronic health problems. Though a range of guidelines now govern the trade in chemicals, many remain

The present publication was produced as part of the project: "Gender and Chemicals - Together for a gender-just healthy planet", conducted by the MSP Institute in 2019.There is a number of gender aspects relevant to chemicals and chemicals and waste management. However, many of them are not receiving the attention they should in order to ensure the best possible decisions in policy-making and effective implementation.The goal of this report is to increase the integration of gender in international chemicals and