During the week of November 22-26 2021, the virtual international civil society conference on chemicals management “Tomorrow without Toxics” took place. With over 440 registrations for the 26 events that week, we reached participants from all over the world. The week featured around 8 hours of high-level panels and around 25 hours of interactive sessions and discussion on various topics addressing various issues of chemicals management. We addressed chemicals issues as a cross cutting theme by several sessions ranging from education for sustainable development to supply chain policy to contaminated oceans. As SAICM and the currently stalled negotiations process for a SAICM-Beyond-2020 framework provided the background for this conference, we had several sessions on existing focus areas of SAICM (e.g. dealing with highly hazardous pesticides or chemicals in product) as well as various demands for a new SAICM. However, we also have had several sessions addressed issues not directly addressed in SAICM. All in all, we had an extensive discussion about chemicals use, exposure and regulation with people from all over the world. This both points are the biggest success so far.
And we are also working on a follow up. Several connections have already been made and people are staying in contact about several sessions and discussion. The issues, in which the people are the most interested, are developments and discussions about concrete actions and treaties such as the legally binding plastic treaty or the international regulatory framework for pesticides; and also cooperation among the transparency topic such as the Global Minimum Transparency Standard or consumer tools such as the European Scan4Chem App. And we are working on a Call to Action that was previously drafted before and commented as well as further developed on the conference. We are still working on it, but we will call for signals in the beginning of the next year. We call for action on all SAICM stakeholders to have a strong and solid SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework, which includes several elements currently missing. Together with the panelist and participants on the conference we identified elements that, because they are missing so far, are reasons for the failure of the SAICM´s overall objective to achieve a sound management of chemicals throughout their lifecycle by the year 2020. We also incorporated the several perspectives from the conference in the demands.
You can find the recordings, slides and short conclusions of the main panels below.
What have we reached?
In addition to everything that have been said before, we would like to highlight out some things, that we feel were great successes. We had 4 high-level panels which including different perspectives on the main topics of the day. The panels were a mix of input and discussion. All panelists gave a great input, pointed out their topic and each panel had a common threat that was also further developed in the joint discussion. The panels always focused on, how can the identified problems be solved by an international regulation of chemicals. The panels were available in five languages and we recorded all panels including interpretation in Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish. The recordings will be made available shortly. And even though the interaction was limited, we were able to respond to questions and comments from the audience via chat. It should also be mentioned that overall the majority of the panelists were female, and we also had a good representation of people from the Global South and all world regions.
Unlike the main panels, the 26 sessions were really interactive and there were a lot of discussion and networking during the sessions. Since many participants were from Africa and the Middle East, we also received the feedback that this opportunity for NGOs and persons from these regions to exchange was great. Several people could get in touch with new colleagues and there are several follow ups.
All our partner organizations, BUND – Friends of the Earth Germany, HEJ-Support, PAN Germany and WECF were heavily involved at all points of the conference, preparing sessions and being part of the main panels. The cooperation in the preparation and organization was extremely helpful. On the one hand, the agenda and content would not have been so extensive without our exchange, and on the other hand several contacts were made. All of our partners bring extremely important points to several discussions at the conference and are also heavily involved in the Call to Action.
Key findings:
The main problem we face is not the lack of knowledge or missing regulations on national and international level. It is mainly the lack of political will to implement existing regulations and to set binding element and conventions.
We must raise awareness of the chemicals issue and create a big picture what are the effects of not acting. We need to get away from technical and scientific discussions and towards tangible information for people. We have to involve the education sector and start to enlighten on all levels of education.
A solid financing mechanism is needed, to solve existing problems and to embed a SAICM Beyond 2020 at all levels. In addition to funding for implementation, funding for civil society and science must be guaranteed. The main part of the financing should be ensured through the Polluter Pays Principle.
According to the Polluter Pays Principle, industry and companies that produce and use chemicals must be held accountable. It is not acceptable that companies and people profiting from the polluting the environment and people.
Transparency is a key issue for achieving a sustainable chemicals management and the SDGs. It could also help eliminate double standards, enable safe recycling, facilitate access to information as a basis for decision-making at all levels, and enable countries to enforce laws. There is a need for a harmonized transparency standard and independent verification.
Chemicals in general are an urgent problem and there is a need for a strong and ambitus regulation. In addition to general regulation, we need to stimulate discussion on several specific regulatory frameworks, such as the plastics treaty currently in the works or even a legally binding framework for pesticides.
Equal and fair participation and presence of all stakeholder, right holders and affected parties in the negation process. This is the only way to guarantee awareness of the different pressures. In addition to the direct involvement of people, the research results of those affected should also be respected and funded.
Events like the Tomorrow without Toxics Conference are extremely important creating a space for exchange among the civil society. More such opportunities are needed, more space must be created and NGOs from all regions of the world must have the opportunity to participate.
During the week of November 22-26 2021, the virtual international civil society conference on chemicals management “Tomorrow without Toxics” took place. With over 440 registrations for the 26 events that week, we reached participants from all over the world. The week featured around 8 hours of high-level panels and around 25 hours of interactive sessions and discussion on various topics addressing various issues of chemicals management. We addressed chemicals issues as a cross cutting theme by several sessions ranging from education for sustainable development to supply chain policy to contaminated oceans. As SAICM and the currently stalled negotiations process for a SAICM-Beyond-2020 framework provided the background for this conference, we had several sessions on existing focus areas of SAICM (e.g. dealing with highly hazardous pesticides or chemicals in product) as well as various demands for a new SAICM. However, we also have had several sessions addressed issues not directly addressed in SAICM. All in all, we had an extensive discussion about chemicals use, exposure and regulation with people from all over the world. This both points are the biggest success so far.
And we are also working on a follow up. Several connections have already been made and people are staying in contact about several sessions and discussion. The issues, in which the people are the most interested, are developments and discussions about concrete actions and treaties such as the legally binding plastic treaty or the international regulatory framework for pesticides; and also cooperation among the transparency topic such as the Global Minimum Transparency Standard or consumer tools such as the European Scan4Chem App. And we are working on a Call to Action that was previously drafted before and commented as well as further developed on the conference. We are still working on it, but we will call for signals in the beginning of the next year. We call for action on all SAICM stakeholders to have a strong and solid SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework, which includes several elements currently missing. Together with the panelist and participants on the conference we identified elements that, because they are missing so far, are reasons for the failure of the SAICM´s overall objective to achieve a sound management of chemicals throughout their lifecycle by the year 2020. We also incorporated the several perspectives from the conference in the demands.
You can find the recordings, slides and short conclusions of the main panels below.
What have we reached?
In addition to everything that have been said before, we would like to highlight out some things, that we feel were great successes. We had 4 high-level panels which including different perspectives on the main topics of the day. The panels were a mix of input and discussion. All panelists gave a great input, pointed out their topic and each panel had a common threat that was also further developed in the joint discussion. The panels always focused on, how can the identified problems be solved by an international regulation of chemicals. The panels were available in five languages and we recorded all panels including interpretation in Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish. The recordings will be made available shortly. And even though the interaction was limited, we were able to respond to questions and comments from the audience via chat. It should also be mentioned that overall the majority of the panelists were female, and we also had a good representation of people from the Global South and all world regions.
Unlike the main panels, the 26 sessions were really interactive and there were a lot of discussion and networking during the sessions. Since many participants were from Africa and the Middle East, we also received the feedback that this opportunity for NGOs and persons from these regions to exchange was great. Several people could get in touch with new colleagues and there are several follow ups.
All our partner organizations, BUND – Friends of the Earth Germany, HEJ-Support, PAN Germany and WECF were heavily involved at all points of the conference, preparing sessions and being part of the main panels. The cooperation in the preparation and organization was extremely helpful. On the one hand, the agenda and content would not have been so extensive without our exchange, and on the other hand several contacts were made. All of our partners bring extremely important points to several discussions at the conference and are also heavily involved in the Call to Action.
Key findings:
The main problem we face is not the lack of knowledge or missing regulations on national and international level. It is mainly the lack of political will to implement existing regulations and to set binding element and conventions.
We must raise awareness of the chemicals issue and create a big picture what are the effects of not acting. We need to get away from technical and scientific discussions and towards tangible information for people. We have to involve the education sector and start to enlighten on all levels of education.
A solid financing mechanism is needed, to solve existing problems and to embed a SAICM Beyond 2020 at all levels. In addition to funding for implementation, funding for civil society and science must be guaranteed. The main part of the financing should be ensured through the Polluter Pays Principle.
According to the Polluter Pays Principle, industry and companies that produce and use chemicals must be held accountable. It is not acceptable that companies and people profiting from the polluting the environment and people.
Transparency is a key issue for achieving a sustainable chemicals management and the SDGs. It could also help eliminate double standards, enable safe recycling, facilitate access to information as a basis for decision-making at all levels, and enable countries to enforce laws. There is a need for a harmonized transparency standard and independent verification.
Chemicals in general are an urgent problem and there is a need for a strong and ambitus regulation. In addition to general regulation, we need to stimulate discussion on several specific regulatory frameworks, such as the plastics treaty currently in the works or even a legally binding framework for pesticides.
Equal and fair participation and presence of all stakeholder, right holders and affected parties in the negation process. This is the only way to guarantee awareness of the different pressures. In addition to the direct involvement of people, the research results of those affected should also be respected and funded.
Events like the Tomorrow without Toxics Conference are extremely important creating a space for exchange among the civil society. More such opportunities are needed, more space must be created and NGOs from all regions of the world must have the opportunity to participate.
