industry and environment - DTIE

Chemicals management
chain. In this respect, the development of a global
strategy provides an opportunity to build a new
partnership approach to chemical safety.
A high level of cooperation on global chemical
issues has already been achieved between producers
and governments, notably in the Rotterdam
and Stockholm Conventions and the High Production
Volume (HPV) Chemicals Initiative of
the International Council of Chemical Associations
(ICCA). 10 Further enhancement of cooperation
among all stakeholders is needed in order to
bridge the gap in chemicals management between
developed and developing countries, as one of the
key goals of the strategy. It is important in this
context to note that the UNEP GC/GMEF
recently decided that there is a need to prepare an
intergovernmental strategic plan for technology
support and capacity building. 11
Governments, NGOs and industry are involved
in a political process aimed at developing a
strategic framework that consists of principles, elements
and concrete measures concerned with safe
production, use and disposal of chemicals and
chemical products across the product chain at the
global level.
This strategy, which will be embedded in the
overall issue of sustainable consumption and production,
will contribute to sustainable development.
It should be recognized that not only will the
strategy have impacts on the chemical industry’s
business, but it will also have much broader consequences
affecting other industries, our customers
and (directly or indirectly) the final consumer.
These impacts may be social or environmental as
well as economic in nature.
Development of the strategy will clearly be
influenced by national/regional chemical policies,
trade and economic aspects, environmental and
health policies, agriculture and industry policy, and
(in principle) countries’ general public policy.
Opportunities
The chemical industry sees the strategic approach
as an excellent opportunity to improve public
confidence in the safe and environmentally sound
management of chemicals, and to further promote
the benefits of chemistry to the global society.
From the chemical industry perspective, it is
key that the strategy provides the means to bridge
the gap in chemicals management between developed
and developing countries. It is a prerequisite
that chemicals policy will become a building block
of a more general public policy. The strategy
should build on the obligations and responsibilities
for safe use of chemicals that are shared by producers,
distributors, users and governments and
are obtained as a result of a new partnership
approach towards chemical safety. This approach
should involve all stakeholders (particularly governments,
business and representatives of civil
society), keeping in mind the need to reduce or
eliminate the differences between developed and
developing countries as agreed at the WSSD.
Capacity building (in the sense of building
infrastructure, and promoting and supporting
education and training for using cleaner technologies
and handling chemicals safely) should
therefore be a key element of this strategy.
A global strategy should be integrative. To
ensure efficiency, consistency and coherence in the
basic concepts required for regulatory approaches,
it should provide mechanisms for the improvement
of internal and external coordination at the
governmental and intergovernmental levels. It
should also enhance synergies and cooperation
among relevant international and regional treaties,
secretariats and agencies.
SAICM could provide the opportunity to
remove trade barriers, so as to reduce and (further)
avoid unnecessary costs and bureaucracy, streamline
regulatory approaches, promote voluntary
activities, and provide public access to information
on the safe management of chemicals and
processes, while protecting legitimate corporate
interests in technical or commercial information.
The strategy should encourage the development
of efficient and transparent mechanisms and
a policy framework for sharing best practices
among companies in the global product chain, as
well as among governments. It should provide the
means to eliminate unnecessary barriers to innovation,
and to set up conditions to ensure that
industry can share best practices and use cleaner
and (whenever possible) best available technologies
and innovative products for the benefit of the
global society.
The strategy should be the basis for a consistent
global approach, to be implemented regionally
and/or nationally in ways that support innovation,
avoid duplication, and maximize sharing of knowledge
and the use of synergies. Implementation in
specific regions and countries should consider the
differences in national or regional regulatory
approaches and in societal, economic and political
conditions. In line with this vision, the chemical
industry has actively contributed (with governments
and other stakeholders) to the development
of regulations and is publicly engaged in providing
its technical expertise to ensure better chemicals
management at the local level.
Risks
However, there are also threats on the horizon.
This strategy framework could be the basis for
additional, even more stringent, legally binding
regulatory approaches at the national, regional or
international levels, which would not always contribute
to more effective chemical safety. Differences
in societal, economic, cultural and political
conditions at the national/regional level may lead
to greater divergence in the implementation of
regulatory systems, resulting in contradictory
measures. This would widen even further the gap
between developed and developing countries in
terms of safe chemicals management and have a
negative impact in respect to WTO free trade
rules. Taking into account the importance of the
chemical business globally, the consequences
could affect the living conditions of large populations,
notably those most in need.
It is also obvious that the call for a life-cycle
assessment approach and its implementation will
impact on downstream users of chemicals, especially
small and medium-sized enterprises. These
businesses, whether they are located in developed
or developing countries, are generally not well prepared
technically or economically to respond to
complex demands such as those related to lifecycle
assessments.
Last but not least, regulatory approaches based
on this strategy could have an impact on the innovation
and competitiveness of the chemical industry
and other industry sectors if unbalanced or
one-sided regulations come into force, imposing
unnecessary obstacles along the value chain.
Conclusion
Despite the present lack of a clear picture in
respect to SAICM, the global chemical industry
perceives in this process a chance for a balanced
outcome, levering the need for command and
control systems with a sound, flexible and practical
strategic approach that will promote and support
industry’s stewardship of chemicals, and one
that is aimed at more regulatory efficiency, integration,
coherence and consistency, less bureaucracy,
and the strengthening of industry
voluntary activities and cooperation among all
stakeholders in a new partnership. Implementation
of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification
and Labelling (GHS) 12 is a good
example of an active contribution to capacity
building by the chemical industry, jointly with
governments and intergovernmental organizations
(e.g. UNITAR 13 ), and a step forward
towards chemical safety globally.
Notes
1. www.basel.int.
2. www.pops.int.
3. www.pic.int.
4. www.unep.org/governingbodies/governingcouncil_seventh.asp;
www.chem.unep.ch/saicm.
5. www.who.int/ifcs/Documents/ Forum/
ForumIII/f3-finrepdoc/Bahia.pdf.
6. www.unep.org/GC/GC22.
7. www.chem.unep.ch/saicm/prepcom1.
8. www.chem.unep.ch/saicm/prepcom2.
9. www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/
WSSD_ POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.
pdf.
10. www.icca-chem.org/section02b.html.
11. www.unep.org/DPDL/cso/Documents/
K0471247_decision_SS-VIII-1.doc.
12. www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/
officialtext.html.
13. http://www.unitar.org/cwm/pag/ghstrain.
html.
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8 ◆ UNEP Industry and Environment April – September 2004