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STORY: GENEVA / UNEP FAO PRESSER
TRT: 3:06
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29 APRIL 2019 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior shot, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot: Room I, Palais des Nations
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary (UNEP), Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions:
“I haven’t heard any serious objections to this. It still remains to hear the parties themselves take the floor and pronounce on this, but as you know we had an open-ended working group here in Geneva about six months ago and we had concerns within the context itself but not really serious objections to the proposal.”
4. Close up, microphones, panel members’ hands
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary (UNEP), Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions:
“That for me, will send a very strong political signal, not only to governments but also to industry, that we have to do something about it.”
6. Med shot: journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary (UNEP), Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions:
“And we still also don’t know enough on the health impacts of those plastics on our bodies although we know that in some parts of the world, they detected plastics already in food, food that people are eating.”
8. Wide shot, journalists, cameras
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary (UNEP), Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions:
“DDT for example, there is only company that produces DDT, and there are very few countries that are using DDT now for Malaria control, and there is a lot of pressure, even coming from the African group now, for DDT to completely stop production.”
10. Wide shot, journalists, panel
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary (UNEP), Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions:
“We are hoping, because I have already seen alternatives for example here in Europe of non-PFOA stick pans, non-stick pans which are non-PFOA, so we are hoping that this kind of transition especially in consumer products, that there might be a quick transition with alternatives coming in.”
12. Wide shot, journalists
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary (UNEP), Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions:
“And when a container has been sent to ‘Country B’ from ‘Country A’, ‘Country B’ knows exactly what is in this container, and ‘Country A’ also can ensure that what is in this container is actually what is supposed to be in it.”
14. Close up, journalist
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Dreyer, Executive Secretary (FAO), Rotterdam Convention: “This will of course reduce the risk posed by these hazardous chemicals and pesticides, as my colleague just pointed out, to protect farmers’ health, and not only farmers’ health but bystanders, children, all those who are involved in chemicals, in particular pesticides.”
16. Close up, journalist’s camera phone
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Rose, Explorer and Broadcaster:
“I still remember the days of stories of asbestosis, you know when people would come back from work, we didn’t know about asbestosis; it would be on their clothing, on their hair, they would hug their family and hug their children. And then we had this business of young ones getting asbestosis, and that was a real memory as a kid, and I see now we are getting a similar thing with pesticides, glyphosates and the like, where a family has worked on farms, worked with animals, worked with horses, and they have been using pesticides, and then, can you believe it- or I guess we can, it has gone into the young ones.”
18. Med shot, journalist
19. Close up, cameraperson, panel in the background
20. Med shot, panel
21. Wide shot, journalists
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said there is optimism that concrete steps will be taken to eliminate plastic pollution at sea, among other key measures to protect people and the environment from toxic products.
According to UNEP, there is an estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic in seas and an estimated 50 million tonnes of electronic waste generated every year.
UNEP’s Rolph Payet, who is an Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions – known as the “Triple COP” said, “I haven’t heard any serious objections to this. It still remains to hear the parties themselves take the floor and pronounce on this, but as you know we had an open-ended working group here in Geneva about six months ago and we had concerns within the context itself but not really serious objections to the proposal.”
If the 187 Member States represented at the Triple COP agree to amend the Basel Convention in the next two weeks, the result will be better-regulated plastic waste transport and greater transparency.
Payet insisted “that for me, will send a very strong political signal, not only to governments but also to industry, that we have to do something about it.”
The UNEP official explained that it would mean that when a container has been sent to ‘Country B’ from ‘Country A’, ‘Country B’ knows exactly what is in this container, and ‘Country A’ also can ensure that what is in this container is actually what is supposed to be in it.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.6 million people die every year from the unsound management of chemicals and waste.
The same concerns apply to plastics, Payet said, noting that more research was needed into airborne – and not only marine - plastic pollution.
He said, “we still also don’t know enough on the health impacts of those plastics on our bodies although we know that in some parts of the world, they detected plastics already in food, food that people are eating.”
Among the other key decisions being taken at the Triple COP are those relating to widely used chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
This meeting of the parties will decide whether to list two new chemicals under the Stockholm Convention: Dicofol – which is used in farming and is known to be an irritant and highly toxic – and Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which is used to make non-stick cookware and food processing equipment.
Payet said, “we are hoping, because I have already seen alternatives for example here in Europe of non-PFOA stick pans, so we are hoping that this kind of transition especially in consumer products, that there might be a quick transition with alternatives coming in.”
Asked about the global community’s stance on the insecticide DDT, Payet explained that it was coming under increasing pressure to be phased out.
Long-associated in the fight against malaria, DDT is regularly re-evaluated by the World Health Organization (WHO), amid concerns – which the WHO has said were not supported by epidemiological data - that it causes a wide range of health problems.
Payet said, “there is only company that produces DDT,” adding that “there are very few countries that are using DDT now for malaria control, and there is a lot of pressure, even coming from the African group now, for DDT to completely stop production.”
While reducing pesticide risks is a key objective of the Triple COP meeting, Member States are also conscious of the need to be able to feed a growing global population, which is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.
Hans Dreyer, Executive Secretary at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rotterdam Convention explained, “the challenge will be to produce enough nutritious and healthy food without harming human health and the environment by hazardous pesticides.”
Over the next two weeks, Member States will decide whether to add three new chemicals to the annex of the Rotterdam Convention, namely Acetochlor, phorate and the industrial chemical hexabromocyclododecane.
The COP will further consider four other chemicals recommended for listing previously, which met all the criteria but for which consensus was not yet reached.
These are carbosulfan, fenthion and paraquat formulations, and chrysotile asbestos.
Dreyer said, “this will of course reduce the risk posed by these hazardous chemicals and pesticides,” adding that “to protect farmers’ health, and not only farmers’ health but bystanders, children, all those who are involved in chemicals, in particular pesticides.”
Likening the danger posed by today’s hazardous chemicals to that of asbestos – a naturally occurring material which is widely used in construction in poorer countries, despite known links to lung cancer and other diseases - explorer and broadcaster Paul Rose said: “I still remember the days of stories of asbestosis, you know when people would come back from work, we didn’t know about asbestosis; it would be on their clothing, on their hair, they would hug their family and hug their children."
He added, “and then we had this business of young ones getting asbestosis, and that was a real memory as a kid, and I see now we are getting a similar thing with pesticides, glyphosates and the like, where a family has worked on farms, worked with animals, worked with horses, and they have been using pesticides, and then, can you believe it- or I guess we can, it has gone into the young ones.”
