Dirty air alone is responsible for 6.7 million deaths globally every year, while conservative estimates suggest that in 2019, 5.5 million people died from heart disease linked to lead exposure.
To stem the pollution crisis, countries agreed in 2022 to establish anew body that would provide policymakers with robust, independent information on chemicals, waste and pollution.
Negotiators are fine-tuning the details of this new science-policy panel. Once operational, it will complete a trifecta of similar scientific bodies designed to counter the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
“Pollution is an urgent global issue, on par with climate change and biodiversity loss,” says Tessa Goverse, principal coordinator of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)-hosted secretariat of the ad hoc open-ended working group, which is tasked with preparing the foundational elements for establishing the panel. “What we’ve been missing is a strong and comprehensive science-policy interface to tackle the pollution pillar of the triple planetary crisis. Now the global community is constructively working towards a panel that can deliver policy impacts that save lives and protect the environment for decades to come.”
The new science-policy panel can help to translate scientific findings into action and is expected to work strategically with the recently adopted Global Framework on Chemicals and numerous Multilateral Environmental Agreements.
Later this month, delegates will gather in Nairobi, Kenya, for the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), the world’s top decision-making body on the environment. They are expected to discuss how to strengthen implementation of international environmental accords and re-enforce the link between science and policymaking.
The new science-policy panel seeks to equip policymakers with the best available science, enabling them to make well-informed decisions and develop policies to lessen the toll of toxic chemicals, waste and pollution on human health and the environment.
“There’s a lot of information out there but the landscape is quite fragmented because of a tendency to look at issues chemical by chemical,” said Goverse. “The panel has the potential to look at chemicals, waste and pollution in a more integrated way and offer the knowledge for more holistic solutions.”
Chemicals bring many benefits to society. But their unsafe and unsustainable management means hazardous and long-lived chemicals are polluting air, land and water. This threatens human health and ecosystems. For example, pesticides used to kill insects leak into rivers and lakes. Discarded medicines end up in wastewater. Contaminated liquids from waste dumps seep into soil.
Those problems are expected to mount. By 2025, the world’s municipalities will produce 2.2 billion tons of waste, more than three times the amount generated in 2009. The size of the global chemical industry is projected to double by 2030.
Beat Pollution
To fight the impact of pollution, the world’s environment ministers expressed their political commitment to work…
“We need urgent action because worldwide the issues are growing and the risks are wide-ranging,” Goverse said.