The Fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) will meet in Bonn, Germany from 25 - 29 September 2023. It aims to approve a new Beyond 2020 Instrument for the sound management of chemicals and waste. In addition, a resumed meeting of the intersessional process (IP4) will be held to finalize recommendations for ICCM5.
The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) was signed in 2006 at the first session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM). SAICM is a unique global strategy to create a world where chemicals are no longer produced or used in ways that harm human health and the environment.
Click above for IPEN's Quick Views and other Information Materials for the ICCM5 and IP4.3 meetings.
SAICM: Setting Boundaries to Protect Human Health and the Environment
IPEN has contributed to SAICM since its inception and with our global network members we have been active participants in every step of the SAICM process. Our new brief review describes just some of IPEN's work on SAICM, with four case studies demonstrating some of the successes and achievements that would not have been reached without SAICM involvement.
Read the briefing here.
ICCM5 - Pathways to a Meaningful Agreement
The task for the fifth session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) is to discuss and adopt a new global instrument on chemicals and wastes - a strategy that will allow us to approve the goals of the forthcoming work to ensure chemical safety in the world for the next decades. This strategy will replace the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), whose mandate ended in 2020.
Within a week, much work will need to be done to agree on a complex and ambitious document, including a list of tasks to be completed in a fairly short time - until 2035.
It is important that ICCM5 delegates be able to agree on the inclusion in the new instrument of a requirement to provide sustainable and sufficient funding to meet the targets. To do this, it is extremely important to ensure the active participation of business in the implementation of one of the basic principles of sustainable development - the "polluter pays" principle. It was the extremely weak funding of SAICM that led to falling short of its original goal.
IPEN Pamphlet
SAICM is a critical tool for sustainable development as the only framework to address the hundreds of thousands of toxic chemicals not covered by any other global agreement.
This poster explains why SAICM is necessary, today's reality of planetary threats from chemical pollution, and what is needed for ICCM5 to have a strong, meaningful framework.
