The two week special meeting of the contracting parties to the Stockholm Convention, Basel Convention, and Rotterdam Convention was recently held in Geneva, Switzerland. The theme of the meeting is "Accelerating Action: The Goal of Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste".

    These three conventions are the main multilateral environmental agreements on the sound management of chemicals and waste. More than 2000 representatives from around the world will make further progress on key issues in the three conventions to address pollution issues and achieve the goals of the three conventions.

    The United Nations Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee has proposed listing three new chemicals in Annex A, Annex B, or Annex C of the Stockholm Convention, namely the pesticide methoxychlor, industrial chemical clone, and industrial chemical UV-328.

    MethoxyDDT is a substitute for DDT and is used to control various pests. Declone is a flame retardant and UV-328 is a UV absorber, both of which are widely used as plastic additives. These chemicals will take time to gradually phase out.

    The Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention will consider listing four pesticides, two extremely dangerous pesticide formulations, and one industrial chemical in Annex III of the Convention, including the fungicide isocarbonyl, which has a long-term high risk to aquatic organisms, and the insecticide terbutafos, which has a very high risk to terrestrial organisms. This is the first time that the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention has considered these two pesticides.

    The Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention will consider technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of plastic waste and waste containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants.