By Niko Urho (Senior Fellow at the Center for Governance and Sustainability)
The Center for Governance and Sustainability is involved in the authoring of the forthcoming UN flagship report on chemicals management: the 2nd edition of the Global Chemicals Outlook (GCO II). The UN Environment Programme led preparations for the report by engaging 50 authors from various academic backgrounds all around the world. The experts provided an evidence-based analysis of the current status of global chemicals management and recommendations for actions to enhance chemicals safety worldwide.
GCO II will have a critical role in supporting actions to implement and follow-up on relevant sustainable development goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. The report will also provide a valuable input to the formulation of the new framework for sound management of chemicals and waste in the context of The Intersessional Process, which will replace the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) in 2020 once adopted.
The Center contributed to the report by mapping the contribution of multilateral environmental agreements and other relevant voluntary initiatives for achieving the 2020 goal for sound management of chemicals and waste. The Center also identified options for measuring progress more meaningfully in the future. The GCO II authors from the Center include Professor Maria Ivanova, Professor Natalia Escobar-Pemberthy and Senior Fellow Niko Urho while Research Associate, Anna Dubrova, provided valuable help in the process.
The Center’s team presented the results of its work at a GCO II expert workshop held 18-20 June 2018 in Bonn, Germany. The draft report is currently under final review and will be published in early 2019 to inform relevant international meetings, in particular, the Third meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group of SAICM in April 2019 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
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