Under policy and governance, UNEP is providing consolidated advisory services and support to governments and stakeholders for the sound management of chemicals. Information, guidance materials, and tools are provided to assist and support countries that are in the process of enhancing their management capacity.
UNEP supports a range of projects, initiatives, and actions including Integrated approach to the sustainable financing of sound management of chemicals and wastes, Intersessional Process of SAICM, Green and Sustainable Chemistry and Open-ended working group on a science-policy panel on chemicals, waste and pollution prevention.
In light of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, the sound management of chemicals is a critical factor in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular but not only: SDG 3 Good health and well-being, SDG 12 Responsible consumption and production, SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities, SDG 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure, SDG 14 Life below water, and SDG 15 Life on land.
The integrated approach to address the financing of the sound management of chemicals and wastes was adopted by UNEA Resolution 1/5 in 2014 with the goal to increase the priority given to chemicals management issues in the national development agendas and to secure sustainable financing to address them.
The three pillars of the integrated approach are as follow
Mainstreaming intended as integrating the sound chemicals management into national policies and programmes
Industry involvement the integrated approach proposes that governments develop legislation which clearly defines the sharing of responsibilities between governments and industry
Dedicated external finances the Special Programme has been established as an external funding element of the integrated approach.
These three pillars are mutually reinforcing and are all important for the long-term and sustainable financing of the sound management of chemicals and waste. Read more on the rationale around the integrated approach.
Building sustainable, long-term capacity
The Chemicals and Health Branch supports a range of projects focusing on the flagship initiatives and actions. These projects include:
- Legal and institutional strengthening
- Pollution and health
- Global Chemicals Outlook
UNEP Publications and projects in support of the integrated approach
Published in April 2022, the Study on Industry Involvement in the Integrated Approach to Financing the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste developed by SAICM is the first that aims to provide a holistic description of the activities associated with industry involvement in the integrated approach, including options for action at various levels and for a variety of actors.
In 2021, the Assessment of options for strengthening the science-policy interface at the international level for sound management of chemicals and waste seeks to facilitate and inform discussions and thus support and promote science-based local, national, regional and global action on sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020. It also aims to provide elements for bringing agendas together, and how science-policy platforms need to interact and inform each other.
Published in 2021, the Green and Sustainable Chemistry: Framework Manual, addresses the questions of “Why” is green and sustainable chemistry needed and “What” does it aim to achieve, and in which specific innovation areas. Enabling tools and measures to advance green and sustainable chemistry are explored to show the “How”.
Launched in 2020, ChemObs results from the UN Environment, WHO and the Africa Institute partnership. It is an integrated health and environment observatory surveillance and information management system that will enable African countries to establish evidence-based policies and make sustainable decisions on the sound management of chemicals and related disease burdens. ChemObs has benefited and uses the resources provided through the GuiDev documents.
Published in 2019, the Global Chemicals Outlook II – From Legacies to Innovative Solutions: Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 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.
Through the GuiDev UNEP developed in 2019, an information document on the Benefits of Chemicals Control and three practical guidance documents to assist governments to establish a functioning chemical control system from different perspectives: National Authority for Chemicals Control: Structure and Funding, Risk Reduction Tools for Chemicals Control, Enforcement of Chemicals Control Legislation.
The Libreville Declaration adopted in August 2008 by ministers of health and ministers in charge of the environment from 52 African countries, commits to the establishment of the Health and Environment Strategic Alliance (HESA) to address these issues in Africa. The third interministerial conference on health and environment IMCHES3 met in November 2018.
Published in 2015, the LIRA Guidance (Legal and Institutional infrastructures for the sound management of chemicals and measures for Recovering costs of national Administrations) aims to provide practical support to policy makers to assist the countries in developing legal and national infrastructures for the sound management of chemicals and wastes.
Published in 2013, the Cost of Inaction on the Sound management of Chemicals provides a practical and useful assessment of the current state of knowledge of the economic costs of inaction on the sound management of chemicals. It makes available early research findings and the evidence needed to support the argument for enhanced political action.
Launched in 2013, the Global Chemicals Outlook: Towards Sound Management of Chemicals assembles scientific, technical and socio-economic information on the sound management of chemicals. It covers trends and indicators for chemical production, transport, use and disposal, and associated health and environmental impacts; economic implications of these trends, including costs of inaction and benefits of action; and instruments and approaches for sound management of chemicals.
Launched in 2012, the UNDP-UNEP Partnership Initiative for the Integration of Sound Management of Chemicals into Development Planning Processes aimed to increase awareness of and capacities for mainstreaming Sound Management of Chemicals priorities into national development plans and policies for developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The methodology applied in the 15 selected countries drew from the UNDP Technical Guide for Integrating the Sound Management of Chemicals into Development Planning. The results and lessons learned from the field-testing projects also fed a revision process for the Technical Guide. An analysis of this work with lessons learned and fact sheets can be found in SAICM/ICCM.4/INF/12.
