Improving international chemicals and waste management

The long and winding road towards the Global Framework on Chemicals

Many of the +100,000 different chemicals produced worldwide can have a significant impact on health and cause environmental damage if they are not managed responsibly. At the fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) in Bonn in September 2023, stakeholders agreed on the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC). At the heart of the framework are specific targets and guidelines for the entire life cycle of chemicals. However, it was a long road to agreement, on which adelphi supported the German government through six rounds of negotiations.

In order to further develop international chemicals and waste management, adelphi developed options for reform, discussed these with stakeholders in workshops and side events and thus introduced them into the international negotiation process. The core of the reform discussions was the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). This voluntary platform brought together governmental and non-governmental actors to jointly increase chemical safety worldwide and promote more sustainable chemicals management.

adelphi supported the German presidency and delegation with scientifically sound analyses and the development of institutionally promising and politically realistic concepts for the reform of SAICM. adelphi thus continued the work that had begun in 2015 in the predecessor project "Sustainability in international chemicals and waste management: Further development of SAICM beyond 2020". During the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, the team was called upon to conceptualise and support new, innovative solutions and event formats at national, regional and global level.

Together with experts Minu Hemmati, Paul Hohnen and Alf Wills, adelphi thus contributed to the adoption of the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC) at the fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5).