thanks to generous financial support provided by the European Union
This information tool was developed thanks to generous financial support provided by the European Union

Joint scientific and technical publications

Keywords
    Conventions
    • Stockholm
    • Basel
    • Rotterdam
    Chemicals
      Local sources versus long-range transport of organic contaminants in the Arctic: future developments related to climate change
      Published by: The Royal Society of Chemistry 2025, January 2025

      Local sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and Chemicals of Emerging Arctic Concern (CEACs) from use in communities, shipping, and industrial activity contribute to contamination as does long-range environmental transport. Increased human activity in the Arctic as the climate warms may enhance the significance of local sources. Furthermore, climate change may lead to secondary sources of POPs and CEACs from existing reservoirs in the Arctic. This review examines the emerging evidence for releases from these secondary sources of formerly deposited POPs and CEACs as the Arctic climate warms and the potential for future releases with increased infrastructure development and economic activity. Arctic permafrost degradation represents an important source of natural and anthropogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and indications exist of releases of POPs related to permafrost thaw, from previous deposition as well as waste sites. Deposition of POPs and some CEACs to Arctic glaciers is relatively well studied while fewer studies explore the impacts of remobilization. Expansion of economic development has the potential for increasing emissions or creating new sources of CEACs in the Arctic. The predicted northward expansion of agriculture, aquaculture, and ship traffic could bring increased emissions of CEACs to northern waters, including pesticides not previously used in the Arctic. Increased industrial chemical use, e.g. fire-fighting foams, flame retardants, lubricant and plastic additives, is likely to occur following the expansion of infrastructure such as airports, seaports, mining, and oil and gas development. While PAHs are relatively well-studied, there is an urgent need for environmental measurements and modelling of emissions of CEACs associated with the expansion of economic activity in the Arctic as well as to predict the future release of legacy POPs from secondary sources, particularly from permafrost.


      The Critical Role of Commercial Analytical Reference Standards in the Control of Chemical Risks: The Case of PFAS and Ways Forward
      Published by: Environmental Health Perspectives, January 2025

      Various countries have instituted risk governance measures to control and minimize the risks of chemicals at the national and international levels. Activities typically include risk assessment based on a) hazard and exposure assessments; b) setting limits on the production, use, and emissions of chemicals; c) enforcement of regulations; and d) monitoring the effectiveness of the measures taken. These steps largely depend on chemical analysis and access to pure chemical reference standards. However, except for specific highly regulated categories of chemicals, such reference standards often are not commercially available. This raises a critical question: Given the widespread lack of reference standards, is the current approach to governing chemicals adequate to protect humans and the environment from harm? If not, what measures could be taken to improve the situation?


      Chemicals and waste: National legal frameworks; prevention and combatting illegal traffic and trade - Turkmenistan
      Published by: United Nations Environment Programme, September 2024

      A series of technical assistance activities were implemented to support Parties in the Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Pacific and Africa regions to strengthen national legal frameworks and to take measures to prevent and combat illegal traffic and trade in hazardous chemicals and waste under the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions. These included a range of activities and national projects to strengthen national legal frameworks and international trade control measures. These activities were financed through the generous support of the European Union.


      Chemicals and waste: National legal frameworks; prevention and combatting illegal traffic and trade - State of Palestine
      Published by: United Nations Environment Programme, September 2024

      A series of technical assistance activities were implemented to support Parties in the Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Pacific and Africa regions to strengthen national legal frameworks and to take measures to prevent and combat illegal traffic and trade in hazardous chemicals and waste under the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions. These included a range of activities and national projects to strengthen national legal frameworks and international trade control measures. These activities were financed through the generous support of the European Union.


      Chemicals and waste: National legal frameworks; prevention and combatting illegal traffic and trade
      Published by: United Nations Environment Programme, September 2024

      The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions share the common objective of protecting human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals and wastes at all stages of their lifecycle, from production to final disposal or recycling. All three Conventions provide conditions and procedures for the control of the international trade or transboundary movements of chemicals and wastes. These conditions and procedures are expected to ensure that importing States are not confronted with hazardous chemicals and wastes that they do not wish to receive, for instance because they have prohibited their use or because they are unable to manage them in an environmentally sound manner.


      DOCUMENT D'ORIENTATION DES DECISIONS: Ethylene oxide
      Published by: Rotterdam Convention, June 2024

      For each chemical listed in Annex III of the Convention and subject to the PIC procedure a Decision Guidance Document (DGD) is prepared. It sets out the scope of the chemical subject to the PIC procedure and contains basic information on the chemical, inter alia its hazard classification, additional sources of information on the chemical and information on possible alternatives.


      Global E-waste Monitor 2024
      Published by: UNITAR, ITU and Fondation Carmignac, March 2024

      Cornelis P. Baldé, Ruediger Kuehr, Tales Yamamoto, Rosie McDonald, Elena D’Angelo, Shahana Althaf, Garam Bel, Otmar Deubzer, Elena Fernandez-Cubillo, Vanessa Forti, Vanessa Gray, Sunil Herat, Shunichi Honda, Giulia Iattoni, Deepali S. Khetriwal, Vittoria Luda di Cortemiglia, Yuliya Lobuntsova, Innocent Nnorom, Noémie Pralat, Michelle Wagner (2024). International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). 2024. Global E-waste Monitor 2024. Geneva/Bonn.


      Towards Zero Waste: a catalyst for delivering the Sustainable Development Goals
      Published by: United Nations Environment Programme, March 2024

      In 2015 all United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future” (United Nations General Assembly [UNGA] 2015). At its core are 17 interlinked global goals – the Sustainable Development Goals – which are intended to be achieved by 2030.


      Results of the 2016-2019 WHO/UNEP human milk survey on Persistent Organic Pollutants
      Published by: United Nations Environment Programme, March 2024

      This report presents the findings of the survey on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in human milk coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2016- 2019. This survey is part of the Global Environment Facility- funded UNEP POPs Global Monitoring Plan project in the Africa, Asia, The Pacific Islands and Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC) regions. 36 project countries including 15 in Africa, 4 in Asia, 8 in the Pacific Islands and 9 in GRULAC submitted samples to this survey. Seven self-funded countries from other UN regions participated in this survey on a voluntary basis.


      Review of facts, experiences, achievements, and challenges in relation to Persistent Organic Pollutant monitoring activities
      Published by: United Nations Environment Programme, March 2024

      The Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is a tool that collects information on POPs in the environment and in humans to identify changes and patterns of POPs concentrations over time and assesses regional and global transport of target chemicals.


      1 - 10 of 252 items