Multilateral Environmental Agreements for Wastes and Chemicals: 40 Years of Global Negotiations.

The article discusses how global action for the environmentally sound management (ESM) of chemicals is produced at bilateral, regional, and international levels, and examines the development of three agreements to manage hazardous chemicals, in terms of their scope and effectiveness, within a United Nations framework. Topics include an overview of the fundamentals of International Environmental Governance (IEG), such as its use through legally binding multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), MEA development, and the challenges to MEA use. A comparison of three MEAs for the management of hazardous chemicals, including those outlined at the Basel Convention in 1989, the Rotterdam Convention in 1998, and the Stockholm Convention in 2001, is presented.