La Stratégie pour la durabilité dans le domaine des produits chimiques : comment l'Union européenne peut-elle donner l'exemple au monde ?

This report by the Center for International Environmental Law analyzes the European Commission's October 2020 "Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability." It evaluates the strategy's potential to create a toxic-free environment and provides specific recommendations for the EU to lead global chemical management by strengthening international standards, eliminating double standards in exports, and implementing rigorous internal safety frameworks.

• The EU's Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability aims to create "un environnement exempt de substances toxiques" as part of the European Green Deal's zero pollution ambition. To achieve this, the strategy proposes making a preventive approach—specifically a "generic approach to risk management"—the default for chemicals in consumer products, targeting substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic, endocrine disruptors, or persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT).
• The strategy introduces several technical regulatory goals for 2021-2024, including defining "essential uses" for the most harmful chemicals to limit their use to absolute necessity, developing "safe and sustainable by design" criteria by 2022, and restricting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for non-essential uses between 2022 and 2024.
• The EU intends to improve transparency and safety for plastics by requiring the registration of certain polymers under the REACH regulation. This would apply the "no data, no market" principle, forcing industry to provide data on formulation, toxicity, and production volumes before polymers can enter the European market.
• To lead globally, the EU commits to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals for chemical management, specifically SDG 12.4, SDG 3.9, and SDG 6.3. However, the report notes that the EU has not yet met these commitments internally, as the total consumption of toxic chemicals in the EU increased between 2013 and 2018.
• The report argues that the EU must align its international positions with its sustainability goals, specifically regarding the Stockholm Convention. It criticizes the EU for proposing a high low-POP (Persistent Organic Pollutant) content value of 10,000 mg/kg for short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), which is significantly higher than values proposed by other countries.
• The EU aims to eliminate "double standards" by ensuring that hazardous chemicals banned within the Union are not produced for export to third countries by 2023. The report suggests this should extend to banning the import of food treated with pesticides that are prohibited or severely limited in the EU.
• The report highlights the need for a sustainable funding mechanism for the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), noting that the SAICM secretariat faced an annual deficit of at least 43% for six of the ten years between 2006 and 2015. It proposes an international fund based on a coordinated national tax on basic chemicals.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (n.d.). La Stratégie pour la durabilité dans le domaine des produits chimiques : comment l'Union européenne peut-elle donner l'exemple au monde ? https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/La-Stratégie-pour-la-durabilité-dans-le-domaine-des-produits-chimiques.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. La Stratégie pour la durabilité dans le domaine des produits chimiques : comment l'Union européenne peut-elle donner l'exemple au monde ? n.d. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/La-Stratégie-pour-la-durabilité-dans-le-domaine-des-produits-chimiques.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=La Stratégie pour la durabilité dans le domaine des produits chimiques : comment l'Union européenne peut-elle donner l'exemple au monde ? |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/La-Stratégie-pour-la-durabilité-dans-le-domaine-des-produits-chimiques.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallawndstratgie, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{La Stratégie pour la durabilité dans le domaine des produits chimiques : comment l'Union européenne peut-elle donner l'exemple au monde ?}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/La-Stratégie-pour-la-durabilité-dans-le-domaine-des-produits-chimiques.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }