ENVIRONMENT - Meetings of the conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, “BRS triple COP” (COP15, COP10, COP10) |Online, 26-30 July 2021

Under the theme “Global Agreements for a Healthy Planet: Sound management of chemicals and waste”, the fifteenth meeting of the COP to the Basel Convention, the tenth meeting of the COP to the Rotterdam Convention and the tenth meeting of the COP to the Stockholm Convention (BRS triple COP) convened in a virtual format from 26 to 30 July 2021. A face-to-face segment will follow in Geneva, Switzerland, from 6 to 17 June 2022.

Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

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date: 18/12/2021

The three conventions strive for a coordinated life-cycle approach to the environmentally sound management of chemicals and waste across the world to protect human health and the environment.

This first-ever online segment of UN chemicals and waste conventions ended with key outcomes on budget, compliance, and financial mechanism for their implementation.

Interim programmes of work and budgets for 2022 for the three conventions were adopted, to allow for activities to continue beyond 2021.

In budget meetings held, the EU and its Member States, endorsed the proposal of the African Group and GRULAC to assign funds to update the Basel technical guidelines on lead batteries during the face-to-face segment in June 2022.

Regarding convention compliance, an important step was reached under the Rotterdam Convention, with the first-ever elections of the members of the Compliance Committee, whose mandate is to resolve parties compliance difficulties and review systemic issues of compliance.

The COP also launched the second evaluation of the effectiveness of the Convention, to assess whether the objective of protecting human health and the environment from POPs is achieved.

Under the Stockholm Convention, two important outcomes were decided on the Global Environment Facility (the Stockholm Convention’s financial mechanism) in the context of ongoing negotiations for its 8^th replenishment: 1) the 5^th review of the financial mechanism; and 2) validation of the assessment of the funding necessary and available for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention for the period 2022–2026. According to this report, €4.33 billion are needed to address persistent organic pollutants, out of which €2.11 billion are needed to address polychlorinated biphenyls.

This last item was particularly important for many developing countries that have had long-standing frustrations with the difficulty of accessing GEF funding to support the implementation of their obligations under the Stockholm Convention.

Find full meeting reports at the end of this webpage.