Preventing, controlling and managing pollution is central to improving health, human well-being and prosperity for all.
UNEP drives capacity and leadership in sound management of chemicals and waste, while working to improve ways to reduce waste through circularity, and pollutants released to the air, water, soil and the ocean.
Below are chemicals and pollution highlights from the United Nations System, from partners and from others helping to call attention to the fact that the future of humanity and our planet depends on action now.
25 Sep
2023
11:44
Watch the opening ceremony of ICCM5
Photo: SAICM
The ICCM5, organized by UNEP and hosted by the government of Germany has started.
The conference has a potential to be an important milestone with the expected adoption of an ambitious global framework on chemical and waste and the Bonn High-level Declaration on Chemicals and Waste. Watch the livestream of the opening ceremony.
25 Sep
2023
10:00
Why we must fix toxic chemical pollution to safeguard our planet and health
UNEP Europe
The 5th session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) kicks off today in Bonn, Germany. Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, Director of UNEP’s Industry and Economy Division published an op-ed ahead of the start of conference. Aggarwal-Khan writes:
“Behind every statistic lies a personal tragedy — a worker exposed to toxic fumes, a child affected by water contamination, a community grappling with the aftermath of environmental degradation.”
ICCM5 offers a unique opportunity for governments, industries and the civil society to come together and embrace stringent regulatory frameworks for chemicals management.
06 Sep
2023
15:51
WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin
The 2023 WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletinreveal that climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of heatwaves. This extreme heat, compounded by wildfires and desert dust, is having a measurable impact on air quality, human health and the environment.
INC Chair publishes Zero Draft of international agreement on plastic pollution ahead of third round of negotiations
Photo: Unsplash/Naja Bertolt Jensen
Ahead of the third session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC-3) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, the INC Chair, as requested at INC-2, has prepared with the support of the INC Secretariat, and published a ‘Zero draft text of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment’ (UNEP/PP/INC.3/4). The text is guided by the views expressed at the committee’s first and second sessions and reflects the objective and mandate of United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 5/14.
Member States will be invited to start negotiations on the basis of the Zero Draft text at INC-3, which will take place from 13 to 19 November at UNEP’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Secretariat will also prepare a synthesis report of the submissions received on elements not discussed at the second session, such as principles and scope of the instrument, to be released in October.
