24 March 2025, Quezon City. To protect human and environmental health, the EcoWaste Coalition, a participating organization of the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), expressed its support for the addition of several industrial chemicals and pesticides in two global treaties that count on the Philippines among the state parties.
In a position paper submitted to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) through the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), the EcoWaste Coalition, an advocacy group for a zero waste and toxics-free society, agreed to the recommendations made by expert groups to include the nominated chemicals under Annex A of the Stockholm Convention and in Annex III of the Rotterdam Conventions.
Photo by Kiara Worth, IISD – ENB.
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), adopted in 2001 and ratified by the Philippine government in 2004, aims to protect human health and the environment from POPs. These highly toxic pollutants include pesticides, industrial chemicals, and by-products that do not readily degrade and can remain intact in the environment for long periods of time, travel long distances, accumulate and magnify in living organisms through the food chain, posing a serious threat to the health of humans and wildlife.
Annex A of the Stockholm Convention currently includes 17 industrial chemicals, pesticides, and by-products that are targeted for global elimination.
Nominated by the POPs Review Committee for inclusion in Annex A following rigorous evaluation are chlorpyrifos, long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids, their salts and related compounds (LC-PFCA), and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs).
In endorsing the POPRC’s recommendations, the EcoWaste Coalition cited the Committee’s conclusion that chlorpyrifos, LC-PFCA and MCCPs are likely, as a result of their long-range environmental transport, to lead to significant human health and/or environmental effects such that global action is warranted.
Echoing IPEN’s position, the group also pointed out that the most effective means to protect human health and the environment from the risks associated with the nominated POPs is a complete prohibition of their production, sale, and use with no specific exemptions, noting that viable alternatives exist and are in use for these proposed POPs.
The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure (PIC) for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, adopted in 1998 and ratified by the Philippine government in 2006, establishes the PIC procedure to ensure that listed industrial chemicals and pesticides are not exported to countries that have not agreed to receive them.
Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention presently lists 36 pesticides, 18 industrial chemicals, and one chemical classified as pesticide and industrial chemical.
Nominated by the Chemical Review Committee (CRC) for listing in Annex III are acetochlor, carbosulfan, chlorpyrifos, chrysotile asbestos, fenthion, iprodione, liquid formulations (emulsifiable concentrate and soluble concentrate) containing paraquat dichloride, mercury, methyl bromide, and paraquat.
In supporting the inclusion of the above chemicals in Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention, the EcoWaste Coalition emphasized that such a listing will assist governments in monitoring the importation, distribution, sale and use of these chemicals, as well as control illegal trade, by requiring PIC of importing countries.
While listing the 10 nominated chemicals in Annex III of the treaty will not prohibit them from being manufactured and exported, the application of the PIC procedure will enable the Philippines and other countries to control the entry of these chemicals into their ports and make informed decisions about their importation and use, the group clarified.
Closing session of the 2023 Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (photo by Kiara Worth, IISD – ENB)
“We request the upcoming Conferences of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention and the Rotterdam Conventions to adopt the recommendations made by the POPRC and the CRC as their affirmative decisions will help in safeguarding public health and the environment from the nominated industrial chemicals and pesticides,” the EcoWaste Coalition said.
The meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, or the 2025 BRS COPs, will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from April 28 to May 9 under the theme “Make visible the invisible: sound management of chemicals and wastes.”
The EcoWaste Coalition will send a representative to the 2025 BRS COPs as part of the IPEN delegation.
References:
https://chm.pops.int/
https://www.brsmeas.org/
