Towards a Global Phase-out of PFAS Project
Only a few legally binding instruments are in place to control the international trade in chemicals. The primary tool for controlling PFAS at this point is the UN Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), also known as the Stockholm Convention, which covers only PFOS and PFOA, and many uses of those two chemicals are exempted from its controls.
The thousands of other PFAS are covered by the non-binding Strategic Approach towards International Chemicals Management (SAICM)that ends in 2020. The Fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) will be the forum for deciding what system should be in place after 2020. Delayed because of the pandemic, ICCM5 is now scheduled for July 2021 in Bonn, Germany.
In 2009, at the second ICCM, an OECD/UNEP working group was established to develop approaches to reduce emissions and to work towards global elimination. However, very little progress has been made in the past ten years in terms of reducing global emissions. The Global PFAS Science Panel is participating in these international processes for global chemicals management, in order to bring attention to opportunities for reduction and phase-out of all non-essential uses of the class of PFAS.