How can we enforce sustainable management in the production, handling and disposal of chemicals? And how can we do so on a global scale? The Global Framework for Chemicals (GFC) is tackling this challenge: Sustaianble chemistry as an enabler for sustainable development. We have contributed indicators that can be used as metrics to assess whether developments are moving in the direction of sustainable chemistry. „Metrics are the key“ has been published some days ago in „Sustainability“, a scientific journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The GFC sets out a number of challenging targets for the future management of chemicals, including those relating to resource consumption, waste production and social issues. We were pleased to develop indicators for future chemical management based on the concept of sustainable chemistry and workshops with numerous experts from all UN regions. In this article we demonstrate how these indicators can be used to monitor progress of targets that were approved for the GFC by the „World Chemicals Conference“ ICCM5 in 2023. In line with our scope, the indicators are particularly suited to goals on the global scale that aim at the necessary standard of sound management of chemicals and waste (SMCW), progress towards sustainable chemistry and, in general, innovations for sustainable development. This is demonstrated in the graphics: The indicators (circles) are each assigned to an SDG (squares) with their number and color-coded accordingly. Connecting lines indicate the applicability of indicators to further SDGs.
For the first time, this study developed criteria for deriving and testing indicators for international chemicals management. The study is based on a project commissioned by the German Environment Agency – please see our former blogs (8.4.2025, 27.9.2024). The results are under discussion in GFC’s Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on Indicators. I would like to thank my colleagues who contributed to this publication, especially Dr Christopher Blum of the German Environment Agency. He will continue this work as the German delegate to the OEWG on indicators.
