4 October 2013: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Chemicals Branch is leading the development of a Chemicals in Products (CiP) programme. The development of a CiP programme was mandated by the third session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM 3), and will be presented to the international chemicals policy community at ICCM 4, scheduled to convene in 2015.

The CiP programme seeks to address key questions in supporting sound chemicals management decisions for chemicals contained in everyday products, such as: where does information on these chemicals need to flow; who should be responsible for providing this information; with whom should they be exchanging information; and what practices are effective for information exchange.

UNEP is developing the CiP programme proposal, including through stakeholder outreach. The proposal will: identify roles and suggest responsibilities in chemical information exchange for major stakeholder groups throughout the life cycle of products; and develop guidance on how chemicals information could be transferred, accessed and exchanged.

The proposal is expected to be completed by early 2014, with plans for a pilot demonstration to follow. For more information, contact Kevin Munn at kevin.munn@unep.org. [IISD RS Sources] [CiP Website] [CiP Background paper]