After 5 days of deliberations the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) decided on July 27, 2014 to build institutional capacity for dealing with hazardous waste, chemicals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury. The resolution on chemicals and waste calls for an integrated management of chemicals across their entire life cycle. Such integrated management is considered a central part of sustainable development by UNEA. The resolution points out that the growth of global production, trade and use of chemicals places an increasing burden on developing countries which are least able to deal with the resulting complex challenges. Further, UNEA adopted a resolution on marine plastic debris and microplastics requesting the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) to present scientific assessments on microplastics at the next UNEA meeting. Another top issue identified by UNEA was air pollution which is estimated to cause 7 million deaths annually. Overall the UNEA adopted 16 resolutions during the meeting.
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UNEP (June 27, 2014). “Historic UN Environment Assembly Calls for Strengthened Action on Air Quality, Linked to 7 Million Deaths Annually, Among 16 Major Resolutions”
