The United Nations Environment Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 5/7 of 2 March 2022 on the sound management of chemicals and waste, noting General Assembly resolution 76/300 of 28 July 2022 on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and reaffirming the critical role of multilateral environmental agreements for the sound management of chemicals and waste,
Noting with concern that progress towards the sound management of chemicals and waste has not been sufficient and that pollution in air, water and soil negatively affects the environment and human health, and acknowledging the need to take appropriate action to make faster progress towards the sound management of chemicals and waste,
Welcoming the reports1 prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme in response to the request contained in United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 5/7,
Welcoming also World Health Assembly resolution WHA76.17 of 30 May 2023 on the impact of chemicals, waste and pollution on human health, and recognizing, in particular, the importance of sound chemicals management for human health, the key role of the World Health Organization in providing leadership and coordination on the human health aspects of the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle, and the necessity of health sector participation in and contribution to those efforts,
Welcoming with appreciation the substantial increases in funding allocated to the chemicals and waste focal area by donors to the eighth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility,
1. Acknowledges the voluntary, multi-stakeholder and multisectoral Global Framework on Chemicals – For a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste;2
2. Requests the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme to continue providing implementation support to the voluntary, multi-stakeholder and multisectoral Global Framework on Chemicals;
3. Encourages all stakeholders to provide further resources to the Global Framework on Chemicals Fund;
4. Invites the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session to appropriately acknowledge the Global Framework on Chemicals, including its strategic objectives and targets;
5. Requests the Executive Director to facilitate coordination between the Global Framework on Chemicals Fund, the Specific International Programme to Support Capacity-Building and Technical Assistance of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and the Special Programme to support institutional strengthening at the national level for implementation of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Minamata Convention and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, within the scope of their respective mandates, in order to enhance complementarity and avoid duplication;
6. Adopts the amendments to the terms of reference of the Special Programme, as set out in the annex to the present resolution, in order to take into account the Global Framework on Chemicals and its implementation, in accordance with the decision contained in paragraph 16 of United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 5/7;
7. Recalls paragraph 18 of Environment Assembly resolution 5/7;
8. Requests the Executive Director to prepare a report, subject to the availability of resources, building on existing measures and initiatives to address lead, cadmium, arsenic and organotins, and to continue the work of the United Nations Environment Programme in supporting Member States in their actions;
9. Also requests the Executive Director to report to the Environment Assembly at its seventh session on the implementation of the present resolution and the implementation of the programme of work with respect to chemicals and waste.