Report Paths to Global Chemical Safety: The 2020 Goal and Beyond

The report analyzes the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions, alongside the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), concluding that these instruments are unlikely to fully protect human health and the environment due to structural shortcomings and insufficient political will. It identifies five core challenges: implementation capacity, sustainable finance, information gaps, narrow scope, and 'treaty fatigue.' To address these, the authors propose two paths: enhancing existing agreements (particularly SAICM) or establishing a new, legally binding Global Chemicals Convention (GCC) that would integrate existing treaties as protocols and mandate the internalization of environmental costs by the chemical industry.

• The existing international framework for chemicals management is inadequate to meet the 2020 goal of sound management of chemicals, as the current agreements are too narrow in scope and lack the necessary structural strength.
• Five overarching challenges hinder global chemical safety: a lack of national implementation capacity, inadequate and unpredictable sustainable finance, significant global information gaps regarding chemical properties, a narrow scope that leaves many 'orphan issues' unaddressed, and a 'treaty thicket' that creates coordination burdens and 'treaty fatigue'.
• Financial resources for chemical safety are severely insufficient; for example, the Global Environment Facility committed US $425 million to POPs from 2001-2010, while the estimated need for developing countries from 2010-2014 was approximately US $4.5 billion.
• The 'polluter pays principle' has not been operationalized in global chemical agreements, meaning the chemical industry does not internalize the social and environmental costs of its products, such as the US $108 billion in lost economic productivity due to lead exposure in Africa, Latin America, and South East Asia.
• The Stockholm Convention is the only legally binding instrument that regulates the full life-cycle of listed chemicals, but its scope is limited to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and its effectiveness is hampered by the lack of a compliance mechanism.
• SAICM provides a valuable participatory forum for emerging policy issues—such as lead in paint and nanomaterials—but its non-binding nature and limited funding (US $31 million via the Quick Start Programme from 2006-2010) restrict its impact.
• The report proposes a new 'Global Chemicals Convention' (GCC) as a framework agreement that would integrate the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions as protocols and establish a mandatory financial mechanism and a participatory compliance mechanism.
• A proposed Global Chemicals Convention would shift the burden of proof to manufacturers, requiring them to provide adequate health and safety information for any chemical on the market to prevent 'regrettable substitution'.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (n.d.). Report Paths to Global Chemical Safety: The 2020 Goal and Beyond. https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Paths_GlobalChemSafety_Mar2013.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Report Paths to Global Chemical Safety: The 2020 Goal and Beyond. n.d. https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Paths_GlobalChemSafety_Mar2013.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Report Paths to Global Chemical Safety: The 2020 Goal and Beyond |url=https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Paths_GlobalChemSafety_Mar2013.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallawndreport, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Report Paths to Global Chemical Safety: The 2020 Goal and Beyond}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Paths_GlobalChemSafety_Mar2013.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }