Sweden is investing in getting together an alliance of the most ambitious countries for worldwide promotion of an agreement on the safe management of chemical products and waste. The agreement would protect human health and be part of the international initiative known as The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
To this end, the Swedish delegation, backed by the Luxembourg delegation, presented the initiative, under “miscellaneous”, to the Council of European environment ministers in Luxembourg on 25 June. The initiative provides a political framework for promoting the safety of chemical products throughout the world.
SAICM’s aim is to place emphasis on the safety of chemical products as a key question of sustainable development in order to achieve an ambitious 2020 target. The initiative is based on multi-player and multi-sector participation and aims to gain assent from decision-makers at the highest political level.
The alliance that Sweden seeks to launch will aim to heighten awareness of the public and decision-makers at the highest level regarding the urgent need to act on chemical products and waste, at both national and international levels. Sweden pointed out that many chemical products are highly dangerous and that pollution – the first environmental cause of illness and death – was responsible for some 9 million premature deaths worldwide in 2015.
Sweden stressed that sound management of chemicals and waste is at the core of the global agenda for sustainable development by 2030 and that the process for establishing a programme beyond 2020 as part of the SAICM initiative provides an opportunity that should be seized to conclude an ambitious global agreement on chemical products and waste.
The European Commission has still not presented the long-awaited European strategy for the good management of chemical products for a non-toxic environment, in line with the objectives established in the 7th action programme for the environment (EAP). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)