The EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental organization advocating for a zero waste and toxics-free society, asked the government to adopt a strong and global policy instrument to protect human health and the environment from chemicals and waste throughout their lifecycle.
The group asked Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga and Environmental Management Bureau director Gilbert Gonzales, the EcoWaste Coalition to work for a more ambitious Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.
SAICM is a global policy framework adopted at the first International Conference on Chemicals Management in 2006 to guide the multi-stakeholders’ efforts to achieve the goal that by 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
The goal was previously agreed at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“As the 2020 goal to minimize the adverse effects of chemicals and waste throughout their lifecycle on human health and the environment has yet to be attained, the new instrument is anticipated to be more ambitious and to catalyze a more proactive and timely action to achieve the said goal,” the coalition said in their separate letters to DENR and EMB.
Stakeholders from the government, industry, civil society, health, labor, academia and other sectors will have the opportunity to forge a strengthened SAICM as they gather on Sept. 25 to 29 in Bonn, Germany for the fifth session of ICCM.
The session endeavors all participants to agree on a new text that can advance global action to protect present and future generations and the environment from chemical hazards.
As the government prepares for ICCM 5, the EcoWaste Coalition, a participating organization of the International Pollutants Elimination Network carved out proposals for adoption by ICCM.
The coalition said the new SAICM text should retain its comprehensive scope and cover chemicals and waste, consistent with the language of Sustainable Development Goal target 12.4.
The SDG target stressed the sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, among others.
The SAICM should also meet the Convention of Biodiversity’s target to “reduce by half both excess nutrients and the overall risk posed by pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals”, as well as the resolution adopted by the 76th World Health Assembly last May 2023 regarding the impact of chemicals, waste and pollution on human health, it said.
“It is our hope that the government of the Philippines can amplify the above points during the negotiations for a new SAICM text at ICCM5 and related events, including the regional meetings and contact group meetings, particularly in the oral interventions and written submissions to be made by our distinguished delegates,” the group said.