This article was written by the IUCN.
Pollution from waste and chemicals are major drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation on land, in water systems and in the marine environment.
This emerged from discussions held at this week’s Parties to the Basil, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions (BRSCOP), in Geneva.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law are participating as observers providing the international voice for nature and conservation.
The BRS Conventions are multilateral environmental agreements designed to regulate the handling of chemicals and hazardous waste worldwide to protect the environment and human health from negative impacts of hazardous pollutants and wastes.
Over the years, IUCN Members have adopted many Resolutions regarding chemicals, waste, and pollution out of plastics, agriculture, and mining, but also on other types of pollution (noise, light, ship wastewater discharge, Deep Sea mining, sunken vessels, nutrient coastal pollution), which affect nature, ecosystems and people.
While at the 2025 BRS COPs, IUCN continues to make the case that the connections between pollution, biodiversity loss, and human health are intertwined and must be considered together, especially to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 12 on sustainable production and consumption and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its Targets.
The recognition of the need for preventing and managing pollution and improving cooperation between agreements is crucial for States and furthers the idea of “making visible the invisible” for the sound management of chemicals and wastes. As States negotiate over the next two weeks, IUCN and WCEL will continue to position the Union to advance these connections, linking to the Union’s overall strategic programme for conservation to be renewed at the upcoming World Conservation Congress 9-15 October in Abu Dhabi.
In advance of the next negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty, IUCN and WCEL propose to States that the international cooperation measures used and endorsed by the BRS COPs is carried forward for a dedicated article on International Cooperation in the Global Plastics Treaty when INC5.2 reconvenes in Geneva in August 2025. As ever, IUCN and its World Commission for Environmental Law stand ready to support the BRS Conventions and State Parties with further legal and scientific expertise.
Picture: IUCN