Stakeholder Statement on the Global Alliance on Highly Hazardous Pesticides

30th September 2024 

On the First Anniversary of The Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC), global stakeholders call for the urgent establishment of the Global Alliance on Highly Hazardous Pesticides. 

On 30th September last year, the international community took a landmark decision to endorse the formation of a Global Alliance on Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs), with the goal of prioritizing effective measures to phase out their use in agriculture. 

The proposal - adopted at the 5th International Conference on Chemical Management (ICCM5) - had been tabled by the entire Africa region and was unanimously supported by all stakeholders attending the UN conference, including governments, civil society organizations, unions and other stakeholders. Among them were 373 civil society and Indigenous Peoples organisations from 74 countries, and even the world’s biggest pesticide and chemical industry lobby groups. 

According to FAO/WHO, HHPs constitute a relatively small share of all pesticides registered globally, and yet they can cause the most harm. With adequate investment in scaling-up alternatives, especially existing and new ecological options for pest control, these pesticides that pose unacceptable risks to humans and the environment can be phased out from agriculture. Highly hazardous pesticides already banned in high-income countries are still used in low-and middle-income countries, where the risk of human and environmental exposure is, almost without exception, much higher than in those countries where they have been banned. 

The Global Alliance was agreed to facilitate the implementation of target A7 of the new Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC), a critical new policy instrument adopted at ICCM5. The target aims at phasing out the world’s most hazardous pesticides – HHPs. Target A7 and the Global Alliance were arguably the most concrete commitments in the GFC to urgently address the intentional and systematic release of highly toxic chemicals into the environment worldwide. 

Reflecting this, international support for the establishment of the Global Alliance was further cemented in a resolution (6/11) of the 6th meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA6) in March 2024, the world’s highest-level environmental decision-making body. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the 2 

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) accepted an invitation to coordinate the work of the Global Alliance, with the FAO taking the lead role. 

However, while some preparatory work is reportedly underway, one year on the Global Alliance on Highly Hazardous Pesticides has not yet been established, and no mechanism nor transparent timeline has been announced for interested governments, companies, and civil society organizations to join, or develop actionable work plans. 

The creation of the Global Alliance is urgently needed to harness political momentum to tackle the global problem of HHPs, and support countries in their transition away from the use of these dangerous pesticides in agriculture. 

Delivering the phase-out of HHPs, including through the Global Alliance, will be critical to the successful implementation of complementary international commitments on biodiversity and climate change in other global agreements. This includes historic commitments to reduce risks to biodiversity from pesticide pollution mandated by Target 7 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and commitments under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to tackle the major contribution of unsustainable agriculture and food systems to the climate crisis. 

Mindful of the need for due process, the undersigned Organizations and Indigenous Peoples call on the FAO and the other UN organisations, to establish and launch the Global Alliance on HHPs, as a matter of utmost urgency, so that it can start working and deliver on its mandate to identify and promote safer alternatives and more sustainable agricultural practices, including agroecology, and support low and middle-income countries in phasing out highly hazardous pesticides. 

(download the statement with the full list of signatories below)