The third Berlin Forum on Chemicals and Sustainability took stock of progress in implementing the 2023 Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC) and shared experiences in chemical and waste management in an effort to catalyze further action and partnerships. The need for enhanced partnerships along the entire chemicals value chain, including industry, government, and the financial sector, emerged as one of the key messages from the Forum’s discussions.
Highlighting chemicals as “one of the major and most globalized sectors of the global economy,” the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary report of the meeting points to the need to balance chemicals’ contribution to improved living standards against heavy use of water and energy in their manufacture and the adverse impacts on the environment and human health, which “make sound chemicals management a key crosscutting issue for sustainable development.”
“The international community first sought to address this challenge by creating the voluntary multi-sector, multistakeholder Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) in 2006, governed by a periodic International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM),” ENB writes. In 2023, ICCM5 agreed a Global Framework on Chemicals: For a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste – “a comprehensive and more ambitious successor to SAICM.” ‘Implementing the Global Framework on Chemicals’ was the focus of the third Berlin Forum on Chemicals and Sustainability.
The Forum’s thematic sessions focused on:
- Fostering commitment in key sectors that play an important role in achieving change;
- Creating links to and engaging with other sustainable development fora;
- Strengthening legal frameworks, institutional mechanisms, and capacities;
- Transforming product value and supply chains; and
- Identifying and scaling up innovative financing.
Representatives of participating organizations of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) shared their experiences in driving GFC implementation, “including working with stakeholders to develop implementation programmes called for by ICCM5.”
Ministerial representatives from Germany and other countries showcased national initiatives to improve chemicals management. Examples highlighted in the ENB report include “mainstreaming the sound management of pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in diverse sectors, tightening regulation based on national chemicals databases, and improving training to prevent chemicals-related accidents.”
Capacity building and finance were among the barriers identified during discussions. Participants highlighted the multi-stakeholder nature of the GFC as “critically important,” recognizing the Berlin Forum’s role in bringing together relevant stakeholders.
Representatives of the host country, the GFC Secretariat, and IOMC members called on participants to continue to build on the energy and goodwill displayed at ICCM5 and related negotiations, including on a future plastics treaty, and to “put[] all hands on deck to turn the intent of the GFC into concrete actions.”
The third Berlin Forum on Chemicals and Sustainability convened virtually from 5-6 September 2024. The IOMC and the German Government co-hosted the meeting. [ENB Coverage of Third Berlin Forum on Chemicals and Sustainability]