The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the twelfth of which is “Responsible consumption and production,” namely: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Under this major goal, there are 17 targets, the 12.4 of which is “By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed internationalframeworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.”

●Current Situation

About the World

Strengthen nature protection action and provide a healthy earth

At the Fifth United Nations Environment Conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that in this period full of “crisis and vulnerability”, human welfare and prosperity can be greatly improved by giving priority to solutions based on nature. The world needs to recognize that all environmental, social and economic challenges are interrelated.

In the context of the catastrophic threat of the ocean being filled with plastic and becoming more acidic, the temperature rising to more than three degrees Celsius, and the decline of biodiversity “at a dangerous rate”, there is no choice but to change the economic and social value orientation towards nature.

Guterres said, “To a large extent, the viability of human beings on this planet depends on the common efforts of the world. With leadership, determination and commitment to future generations, we can provide a healthy earth for all mankind, so that it will not only survive, but also thrive. Therefore, we must put the health of the earth at the center of all our plans and policies.”

In addition, he emphasized the importance of a strong “post-2020 framework” for the sound management of chemicals and wastes, and advocated “alternative solutions to protect human health and the environment”.

Source: UNESCO Center for Peace

About China

China's solid waste and chemical environmental control have achieved substantial results

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee and the 2021 Government Work Report put forward key tasks for the environmental governance of solid wastes and chemicals, including continuing to prohibit the entry of foreign garbage, strengthening the white pollution control, strengthening the collection and treatment of hazardous waste and medical waste, and attaching importance to the treatment of new pollutants. In 2021, the National Ecological and Environmental Protection Working Conference required to continue to promote the construction of “waste free cities”. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with 17 departments including the Development and Reform Commission, jointly issued and implemented the Work Plan for the Construction of “Waste free Cities” during the “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan” Period, and studied and planned new goals and tasks for the construction of “waste free cities”. In the face of the new tasks of new pollutant control during the “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan”, relevant departments extensively organized various forces to carry out in-depth research, prepared and completed the Action Plan for New Pollutant Control, and publicly solicited opinions.

2022 is a key year to implement the tasks of the “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan”. The relevant responsible person of the Solid Waste and Chemicals Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that the next step will be to solidly promote the construction of “waste free cities” in about 100 cities at prefecture level and above, and consolidate the effect of the reform to forbid the entry of foreign garbage. China will continue to strengthen the reform of hazardous waste management, utilization and disposal capacity, continue to promote the special rectification of hazardous waste, the “1+6+20” major projects and other special work, improve the informatization level of hazardous waste environmental management, and continue to do a good job in environmental management of medical waste. China will continue to promote pollution control in the pyrite mining area of Baihe County and the pollution control in the “manganese triangle”, orderly promote the pollution control and hidden danger investigation of tailings pond, strengthen the control of heavy metal pollutant emission, and standardize the environmental management of waste electronic and electrical products recycling. China will also comprehensively promote the implementation of the Action Plan for the Treatment of New Pollutants, promote the formulation of the Regulations on Environmental Risk Management of Toxic and Harmful Chemicals, and release the first batch of priority assessment plans for environmental risks of chemical substances and the first batch of List of Key New Pollutants for Control.

Sources: Sina Finance, ThePaper.cn

●Cases

About the World

The U.S. TRI program: a leader in international chemical release reporting

Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) are the data collection systems that track releases of pollutants into the environment and transfers of pollutants off site for waste disposal or other management. The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is the U.S. PRTR system. Established in 1987, TRI was the first system of this kind in the world. Since then, many countries have set up PRTRs following the TRI model. One of the primary purposes of these systems is to improve transparency regarding pollutant releases and transfers to better inform decision-making by policymakers, scientists, industry representatives, and others. Currently, at least 50 countries have fully established PRTRs or have implemented pilotprograms. International PRTRs are similar to one another but vary in scope, taking into account individual country circumstances, such as existing regulations and the types of industry in the country. Many more PRTRs are expected to be developed in the coming years, particularly in Asian and South American countries.

Source: epa.gov

Policymakers are urged to act in addressing “the elephant in the room” – pollution arising from emissions fromcombustion, chemical production and non-circular waste management

Rolph Payet, executive secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm (BRS) conventions, says, “The twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss through increasing pollution from chemicals and wastes show no signs of slowing. COP-26 needs to address pollution reduction, including the life-cycle approach to the management of chemicals and waste, including plastic waste, to simultaneously slow the increase in greenhouse gases and lead to improvements in environmental quality and the recovery of nature. ‘Making peace with nature’ is about stimulating and supporting the transition to a more sustainable global economy built upon circularity and a life-cycle approach to resource use. Since the sound management of chemicals and waste underpins all of the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, it needs to also be addressed through strategies and policies addressing climate change as well.” 

A BRS Secretariat technical report, produced jointly with the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, explores the profound interlinkages between climate change, chemicals and waste.

First, petrochemical and chemical industries, with strong links to the fossil fuels sector, continue to be significant contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Releases of GHGs and hazardous chemicals happen at all stages in the life cycles of chemicals, including the production of input materials, primary and secondary production processes, chemical use and disposal. Hazardous chemicals and GHGs are release during everyday use of products including in agriculture through the application of pesticides, domestic refrigeration and air-conditioning, and specialist use in fire-fighting foams and explosion protection, to name just a few.

Second, as we tackle issues of land degradation and food production as a result of climate change, adaption responses often leads to increasing use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides and plastics, to combat higher incidences of pest and disease outbreaks, as well as the need to create more micro-environments for agricultural production.Reports indicate increased distribution, growth and reproduction of pests at higher temperatures and in wetter conditions, which in turn leads to a reduction in the efficacy of pesticides. Pesticide usage as a result of both increased temperature and precipitation could rise by 1.1 to 2.5% by 2040 and by 2.4 to 9.1% by 2070 in China alone, despite current efforts to reduce pesticide usage. Robust strategies are thus required for pest and disease mitigation to avoid excessive growth in pesticide use.

Third, climate change can lead to increased releases of hazardous chemicals into the environment. One example is that the melting of polar and alpine glaciers, permafrost and ocean ice induced by climate change results in releases of trapped hazardous chemicals, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury. Projections suggest that under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, mercury emissions from permafrost could reach a peak of 1.9 ± 1.1 Gg Hg per year in 2200, the equivalent of current global atmospheric emissions. Furthermore, flooding and other hydrological impacts caused by the melting of sea ice and permafrost, sometimes compounded by increased precipitation, can lead to local contamination due to physical disruption and damage of pipelines and storage facilities, leading to oil and chemical spills.

Fourth, increased mobilization and volatilization of chemicals from materials storage and stockpiles occurs as temperatures rise. An estimated that 240,000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides are stockpiled in Eastern Europe alone, and between 4 and 7 million tonnes of HCH isomers, generated as a by-product of the manufacture of the POP Lindane, have been stockpiled globally since the 1950s. Abandoned stockpiles of compounds containing heavy metals, which may include mercury, are also found in many parts of the world. Such stockpiles represent “ticking time-bombs” of chemical pollution in a world withrising temperatures.Regionally, such impacts are already beginning to be felt. In the Arctic, for example, trends of POPs have generally been decreasing due to measures introduced to reduce emissions and releases, both before and since the establishment of the Stockholm Convention. Now, however, some are levelling off, and even showing upward trends in air and biota in recent years, climate change being part of the reason. Some POPs, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), are no longer declining in the Arctic to the extent that would be expected, given known decreases in their primary source emissions, possibly due to climate change. This would support model-based studies which suggest climate change will affect contaminant transport pathways to the Arctic

Source: brsmeas.org

About China

Several measures taken in Guangdong to rectify hidden danger of hazardous waste accidents

The Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province and the Department of Emergency Management of Guangdong Province jointly formulated and issued the Implementation Plan for Centralized Treatment of Risks of Hazardous Wastes such as Waste Hazardous Chemicals in Guangdong Province, coordinated environmental protection and safety, and, in a period of one year, focused on rectifying a batch of potential accidents of hazardous wastes, such as waste hazardous chemicals, and preventing and resolving major safety risks.

The centralized risk management of hazardous waste focused on the units involved in the production, use, operation and disposal of hazardous chemicals that generate hazardous waste, and comprehensively fulfilled the responsibility for the safety risk management and control of hazardous waste through four steps, namely, the establishment of an enterprise list through consolidated investigation, the enterprises’ self-inspection and rectification, the city-level inspection, rectification and improvement, and the provincial review and consolidation.

Sources: nandu.com,jobenvironment

Green manufacturing will unleash new growth drivers

According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of 2021, China has organized and implemented more than 300 major green manufacturing projects, announced184 green manufacturing system solution providers, developed more than 500 standards related to green manufacturing, cultivated 2,783 green factories, 223 green industrial parks, and 296 green supply chain enterprises, playing an important leading role in the green and low-carbon transformation of industry.

Green manufacturing is a modern manufacturing mode to achieve green development and sustainable development. It can save resources, reduce energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions and reduce environmental pollution while improving production efficiency. Digital transformation is the accelerator of green manufacturing. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will establish aguidance mechanism of digital empowerment for green manufacturing, promote the deep integration of emerging technologies such as big data, 5G, and industrial Internet with green low-carbon industries, accelerate the application of new generation information technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, digital twins, and blockchain, in the field of green manufacturing, and, along with the cultivation and construction of green factories, green industrial parks, and green supply chains in recent years, gradually cultivate leading benchmarks of green manufacturing.

Source: Economic Daily

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.