Geneva bids to host new global anti-pollution body

Switzerland wants the secretariat of the new "IPCC on pollution". Keystone-SDA

The Swiss city of Geneva wants to host the secretariat of the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution (ISP-CWP).

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At the start of the first meeting of the ISP-CWP in Geneva on Monday, Switzerland announced its offer.

Faced with an “ambitious mandate”, “the panel needs a secretariat that is both well-funded and well-connected”, said Katrin Schneeberger, Director of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). “Geneva offers precisely these conditions”, she insisted as she opened the first plenary session.

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She added that the city already hosted the secretariats of several international conventions on the environment, including the Basel-Rotterdam-Stockholm and Minamata conventions on mercury. And “many other key institutions”, added Schneeberger.

Not to mention the 185 country missions to the UN and international organisations. Schneeberger stated Switzerland’s “commitment” to the new panel.

Switzerland is facing competition from Kenya, host of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), for the secretariat. In his bid, Swiss government minister Albert Rösti said that Geneva offers “synergies that accelerate the conversion of scientific findings into coherent policies”.

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More than 120 members

Switzerland is prepared to contribute CHF500,000 per year, plus a further CHF1 million to launch the panel’s initial activities. It would provide CHF50,000 a year at least until 2029 for office space and a single allocation of CHF10,000 per employee to staff the secretariat in the International Environment House.

More broadly, UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said in her speech that ISP-CWP was responding to a “gap between science and policy”. It must provide scientific guidance on problems that have “a major impact on human ecosystems and economic health”.

Schneeberger felt that the ISP-CWP, which already has 127 members, could have “a real impact”. She asked participants at this week’s meeting to be “clear about the challenges we face”.

Faced with attacks on multilateralism and “limited resources” for it, she urged them to work together. Universities and scientists in particular must work to ensure that the ISP-CWP’s reports are “scientifically robust”, she said.

Adapted from French by AI/mga

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