Written Consultation Submission: INTEV Institute of Total Environment - UNEP’s Call for Written Inputs on Issues of Concern: Priorities for further work and potential further international action

This report documents written inputs submitted by a civil society organization to a United Nations Environment Programme consultation on priorities for further work and potential international action on chemicals and waste. It is structured around nineteen predefined issues of concern covering metals, pesticides, industrial chemicals, consumer product chemicals, and emerging issues across chemical life cycles. For each issue addressed, the submission responds to standardized questions on the necessity of further international action, appropriate types of international measures, relevant policy approaches, barriers to progress, priority sectors, and suitable international forums. The report consistently affirms the need for additional international action, citing widespread use of hazardous substances, transboundary impacts, and insufficient national controls. It emphasizes legally binding instruments, regulatory measures, information-based tools, awareness raising, and support for scientific research as key response options. The document highlights recurring constraints in the national context, including limited technical and scientific capacity, inadequate resource mobilization, weak governance, corruption, and poor policy implementation. Several sectors are repeatedly identified as critical, including agriculture, health, electronics, retail, waste management, and construction. The submission also identifies selected issues as particularly urgent and others as more immediately actionable, based on perceived health and environmental impacts and feasibility of intervention. In its concluding observations, the report underscores governance challenges as a central cross-cutting factor undermining effective chemicals management and notes the importance of integrating accountability considerations into international support and cooperation efforts.