Nations joined in creating a new global panel that can set science policy to tackle the growing crisis of toxic pollution and waste fouling our planet.
An intergovernmental meeting convened by the United Nations Environment Program and hosted by Uruguay in the coastal resort city of Punta del Este concluded on Friday with creation of the new panel to help manage chemicals and waste, and to prevent pollution.
"Today we made history," said UNEP's Executive Director Inger Andersen. "This is the first step in delivering meaningful action to address our global waste and pollution crisis and secure a healthier, safer future for all."
“During complex times, environmental multilateralism has yet again delivered for people and for our planet. Now our focus turns to operationalizing the panel so that it can quickly and effectively support countries, safeguard our environment and protect generations to come.”
UNEP says it began work in 2022 to create a panel that could fill a major gap in the global environmental architecture, providing countries with independent policy advice on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention.
The panel, says the Nairobi-based U.N. agency, is expected to conduct "global assessments, identify knowledge gaps, communicate complex science in policy-friendly formats, and integrate capacity for national decision-making in relation to the panel’s function."
An approach toward 'global wicked problems'
UNEP views the new panel as part of a trifecta with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES.
It will assess the challenges of handling municipal solid waste – at a cost a quarter of a trillion dollars as of five years ago – that is predicted to grow to 3.8 billion tons by 2050, up from from 2.1 billion tons in 2023.
Air pollution, which accounts for 6.5 million deaths a year, is part of a bigger picture: a 66% rise in global pollution over the past two decades.
"Research has clearly demonstrated that global wicked problems, such as those related to chemicals and waste, require disciplinary expertise and transdisciplinary skills," said ecotoxicologist Michelle Bloor, a senior lecturer in environmental science and risk at the University of Glasgow, and two colleagues, Sherika Whitelocke-Ballingsingh and Anna Becker, in an editorial in Sustainable Environment.
"By establishing a transparent mechanism for exchanging expertise and insights," they said, "we can emulate strategies that have proven successful in numerous other contexts, ultimately enhancing the group’s overall effectiveness and impact."
