On June 12-13, 2019, China Trust Fund Project “Implementing Multilateral Environmental Agreement on Chemicals and Wastes in Asia through Enhancing Understanding and Capacity Building” that was hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and organized by the Basel Convention Regional Centre for the Asia-Pacific Region/ Stockholm Convention Regional Centre for Capacity Building and the Transfer of Technology in Asia and the Pacific (BCRC China/SCRCAP),that was successfully launched in Beijing. More than 40 representatives from 11 countries including China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, etc. participated in the kick-off meeting. Experts from UNEP, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) attended the meeting. The representatives shared the status of implementation of the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) on chemicals and wastes in the Asia-Pacific region and discussed the difficulties to improve the implementation capacity and the following working plan.
The meeting was chaired by Prof. Jinhui Li, Executive Director of BCRC China/ SCRCAP and Professor of School of Environment, Tsinghua University. Mr. Yangzhao Sun, Chief of Branch V on POPs of the International Environmental Cooperation Center(IECC), Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), Ms. Jacqueline Alvarez, Science and Risk Team Leader of Chemicals and Waste Branch of Economy Division UNEP, and Ms. Qian Wang, Project Manager from the UNEP Office in China, delivered the opening speeches. Delegates from the UNEP Economy Division, UNEP Law Division, the Secretariat of Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention, and the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury respectively introduced the background of the project, as well as the implementation status of MEAs on chemicals in the Asia-Pacific countries.
The officer from IECC introduced emerging chemicals under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). Representatives of the participating countries discussed the gaps, challenges and priorities when implementing the MEAs, and conducted in-depth exchanges on online training platforms and national activities. The Project aims to strengthen the capacity of environmentally sound management of chemicals among Asian stakeholders, to meet the requirements of MEAs and to promote the achievement of sustainable development goals by promoting new approaches on the environmentally sound management of chemicals.
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