Sustainable Chemicals Management

A Guide for the Post-2020 Period

The list of challenges related to the production and use of chemicals across products’ lifecycles is long – from lack of transparency hindering consumers to pick more sustainable alternatives to the absence of clear regulation regarding hazardous substances.

To address these and other challenges, the “2020 Chemicals Target”, an agreement aimed at minimising adverse effects of chemicals on human health and the environment, was reached at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa in 2002. To implement the “2020 Chemicals Target”, the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) was established in 2006.  As the mandate of the Strategic Approach ends in 2020, an intersessional process involving multiple international stakeholders is on its way to develop recommendations for shaping the strategic approach on international chemicals and waste management beyond 2020.

As part of this framework, the Sustainable Chemicals Management project, a participatory multi-actor process with German and international experts, aims to create positive impacts by developing milestones in the form of orientation marks and setting clear indicators to help monitor the progress in the post-2020 period.

The CSCP will contribute to the identification, analysis and preparatory work related to these milestones and indicators. Moreover, the CSCP will lead the international multi-stakeholder process, in which representatives from the international chemical sector will be invited to evaluate the preparatory work and engage in critical discussions about how to move forward after 2020.

Sustainable Chemicals Management is funded by the Umweltbundesamt (UBA).