Governments, Industry Endorse Global Chemicals Management Strategy

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, February 8, 2006 (ENS) - A new global initiative aimed at making chemicals safer for people and the planet was agreed Monday at an international conference in Dubai. The agreement was reached with participation from governments, the chemicals industry, business, trade unions and other civil society groups.

Called the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, or SAICM, the new voluntary initiative covers a range of measures from risk assessments of chemicals and harmonized labeling to tackling obsolete and stockpiled products.

Fatemeh Vaez Javadi, vice president and head of the Department of Environment, Iran, said SAICM must include precaution and prevention, adding that, although SAICM is voluntary, the high-level declaration will politically bind states to the process. (Photo and caption courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB))

This general intention was strengthened at the 2005 World Summit held in New York last September attended by heads of state, and the initiative on chemicals is among the first concrete outcomes of that Summit.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) helped organize the Dubai meeting with other UN bodies and organizations and will house the SAICM secretariat.

UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said, "I am delighted that governments could agree to this new chemicals initiative which I sincerely believe will be a step change in the way we use and produce chemicals. All kinds of chemicals are vital in the modern world. They have a key role in overcoming poverty and delivering sustainable development."

UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer addresses delegates to the International Conference on Chemicals Management. (Photo courtesy ENB)

Between 70,000 and 100,000 chemicals may be already on the market with an estimated 1,500 new ones being marketed each year. SAICM comes at a time when global chemical production is projected to climb by 80 percent over the next 15 years, and chemical production is shifting from the developed to the developing world.

In recent years, several treaties covering chemicals have come into force, including the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPS). It covers toxic chemicals like the pesticide DDT and substances such as PCBs once widely used in electrical equipment.

Toepfer said, "It has been clear for some time that simply ticking off groups of chemicals one by one was becoming impractical. A new approach, a new way forward for chemicals management was needed, which is what SAICM now offers."

The governments, meeting in advance of the 9th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council and Global Ministerial Environment Forum, also gave support to a multi-million dollar fund called Quick Start Programme aimed at giving financial support to national action plans especially in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

Negotiations were not always smooth. The SAICM negotiations "teetered on the brink of disaster" said Jack Weinberg, co-chair of the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) as "the Bush administration demanded sweeping concessions, rebuffed nearly all efforts to find common ground, and stood alone against over 140 countries to resist the agreement."

Bush administration officials sought to ensure that environment and public health protections would always take a back seat to trade, said Weinberg on behalf of IPEN, a global public interest NGO network with more than 400 participating organizations in 70 countries.

Seated in a wheelchair, Mariann Lloyd-Smith of IPEN, said the SAICM negotiations were foundering and accused some wealthy nations of taking negotiating positions that jeopardize the lives of millions of vulnerable people. (Photo courtesy ENB)

The SAICM initiative provides for national centers to help countries, especially in the developing world, train staff in chemical safety, including how to deal with spills and accidents.

Clifton Curtis director of WWF's Global Toxics Programme, said, "Although this agreement is to be voluntary - rather than a legally binding instrument - it is widely seen as a moral and political necessity, in line with the UN’s goal of minimizing chemical-related harm to the environment and human health by 2020."

Pesticides are mixed or dumped in rivers and canals. Sprayers are washed and cleaned in the same site where people get drinking water. (Photo by M. Davis courtesy World Bank)

Late last year, the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization approved the first operational phase of the Africa Stockpiles Programme. At a conference side event, WWF and other participants said the project is now operational. The multi-partner initiative is designed to show how the chemicals treaties - the Stockholm POPs, the Rotterdam Prior Informed Consent agreement, and the Basel Convention - can deliver on-the ground actions that contribute to sustainable development in Africa.

With close to $60 million available for cleanup and prevention projects, seven countries have been prioritized for action in this first phase of the Africa Stockpiles Programme - Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Tunisia. Inventories, safeguarding, and disposal operations are beginning to take place, as part of a broader effort to assist an additional group of eight to 10 countries for similar work in the second phase.

At the conference on Sunday, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), in partnership with the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), announced the launch of two new environmental, health and safety performance initiatives – the Responsible Care Global Charter and the Global Product Strategy.

Introducing the initiatives, President and CEO of Honeywell Specialty Materials Dr. Nance Dicciani said, "For the more than 50 associations participating in Responsible Care, this new initiative, the Responsible Care Global Charter, elevates our commitment by worldwide performance data reporting, management systems approaches and verification processes beyond self-assessment - something that stakeholders and customers have long called for."

American Chemistry Council President and CEO Jack Gerard says the U.S. industry is adopting a constructive environment, health and safety policy. (Photo courtesy ACC)

Alain Perroy, European Chemical Industry Council director general and ICCA Council secretary, said, "Our industry has been working closely with UNEP and other IGOs and NGOs on these important issues related to chemicals management. As an important complement and contribution to SAICM, we are moving forward to implement these new voluntary objectives and commitments."

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan commended the chemistry industry’s new initiatives, calling them "inspiring models of self-regulation that other industries should consider following."

Annan said he was pleased that the Responsible Care Global Charter and Global Products Strategy initiatives are "aligned with the environmental principles of the United Nations Global Compact." He said, "linking these undertakings with the Global Compact places them in the context of broader issues of society and helps to embed universal principles in global markets."