Convening together, the 2025 Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs) focused on governing chemicals – the world’s fifth-largest global manufacturing sector. The COPs aimed to adopt a series of decisions to protect human health and the environment. According to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) analysis of the meetings, each treaty sought to “leverage its built-in flexibilities to adapt to the work of other international organizations and supply chains.”
The ENB summary report draws attention to the dangerous impacts of hazardous chemicals and wastes on health, the environment, and economic growth. It notes that chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) or “forever chemicals” are used in numerous industrial applications as well as in everyday household items. Yet, “[o]nly a small fraction of chemicals currently on the market have been assessed for their risks to human health and the environment,” ENB writes, and often there is limited understanding of whether wastes that move across borders contain harmful metals or chemicals.
Estimates indicate that, increasingly concentrated in the Global South, global chemical manufacturing is set to double by 2030, and “the human health effects alone are estimated to cost up to 1% of the gross domestic product of India, China, and Nigeria,” ENB reports. This is excluding the informal sector, which is disproportionately affected.
It is against this backdrop that the BRS COPs convened under the theme, ‘Making Visible the Invisible.’ However, the decisions adopted by the COPs “were challenged by the complexities of modern supply chains and the economic importance of chemicals and wastes,” according to ENB.
The Basel Convention’s decisions include revising its Annex IV (disposal operations), which defines “waste” and helps importing and exporting countries track and regulate what happens to waste. The COP also adopted a strategic framework outlining a set of objectives and monitoring provisions. New work will address how the Basel Convention can address textile waste – a growing waste stream of particular relevance to the Global South.
The Rotterdam Convention’s COP adopted a decision to improve its effectiveness. It also agreed to bring two substances under the Convention’s prior informed consent (PIC) procedure – carbosulfan (a pesticide) and fenthion ultra-low volume formulations (a severely hazardous pesticide). The COP could not agree to list several other chemicals, including methyl bromide, mercury, and chlorpyrifos, which are already governed by the Montreal Protocol, Minamata Convention, and Stockholm Convention, respectively. “Chlorpyrifos was for some especially galling,” the ENB analysis notes, as “just days after the parties agreed to eliminate it under the Stockholm Convention, they couldn’t agree to share information about it during trade under the Rotterdam Convention.”
The Stockholm Convention’s COP agreed to list three new POPs in Annex A (elimination):
• Chlorpyrifos, with a long list of time-limited specific exemptions to the ban;
• Long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCAs), used for their ability to repel water, oil, dirt, and grease, with specific exemptions; and
• Medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs), used to make plastics flexible and durable, among other applications, also with exemptions.
“In a first-ever case, the COP agreed to reopen the UV-328 listing to allow for a new specific exemption use in water sealant tape and adhesives for the aircraft industry,” ENB writes, with many underscoring this cannot set a precedent.
The 17th meeting of the COP to the Basel Convention, the 12th meeting of the COP to the Rotterdam Convention, and the 12th meeting of the COP to the Stockholm Convention convened from 28 April to 9 May 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland. Over 1,600 participants attended the COPs, including parties and representatives of states that are not party to any of the three Conventions, as well as representatives from UN agencies and other international organizations, observer organizations, and Basel and Stockholm Convention regional centers. [ENB Coverage of 2025 BRS COPs]
