New UN Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution Established
News story | Date: 23/06/2025 | Ministry of Climate and Environment
A new UN panel has been established in the field of pollution. The panel aims to build a shared knowledge base for global action on the safe management of chemicals and waste, as well as the prevention of pollution. The panel was formally established on 20 June in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Going forward, it may play a key role in efforts to reduce plastic pollution, combat environmental toxins, and promote good waste management globally.
With the establishment of this panel, all three planetary environmental crises – climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution – now have their own global knowledge panels.
‘Shared knowledge is crucial if we are to solve the major environmental crises facing the world. I am therefore very pleased that Norway, together with the rest of the world, is finally establishing a knowledge panel on pollution’, said Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen.
The three global environmental crises require action at national, regional, and global levels. Experience from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has shown how important it is to have shared, high-quality scientific knowledge as a basis for collective action. At its fifth session, the UN Environment Assembly decided to initiate negotiations to establish a panel on chemicals, waste, and pollution reduction in 2022. After more than two years, over 100 countries met in Uruguay to formally establish such a knowledge panel.
The panel will present scientific reports and serve as a platform for dialogue between science and policymaking. It will help ensure that the global community has the best possible knowledge and decision-making basis for managing chemicals and waste, and for preventing pollution.
‘The panel will also have an important role in communicating information to the global population. Norwegian researchers have been involved in the establishment of this panel, and their contributions will be central to its work’, said Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen.