Hope everyone is having a great and productive Monday!

This is to quickly share the updates on the Gender Guidance with you. Generic tools (Annex 1) and NIP-specific gender tools (Annexes 3-5) are now available on our initiative page.

For colleagues working on NAPs, please kindly refer to Annexes 2-4 on the same page.

Wish everyone a nice day!

Hello colleagues! Hope your Monday is off to a great start!

We trust you had time to explore Sectoral Guidance for Inventories of POPs and other Chemicals of Concern by Dr.Roland Weber available on the Global NIP Update Project Initiative page.

New industrial POPs are present in polymers and wood in buildings and construction, in plastics in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), vehicles, textiles, and a range of other consumer goods. These uses result in human exposure indoor, environmental releases and food chain contamination, and the generation of POP-contaminated waste and recycling cycles in particular for plastics.

This guidance steps away from the chemical-by-chemical approach and brings a more systematized sectoral overview of chemicals present in the construction, electronics, and transport sectors.

Hello Colleagues!

Sharing another piece of information on PFAS from the consumer's perspective.

While they are not commonly listed ingredients in cosmetics, PFAS compounds can sometimes be present in cosmetics as contaminants if they are used in manufacturing processes or sourced from contaminated raw materials.

Green Science Policy Institute`s research on PFAS concludes that some of its compounds in cosmetics may remain unlisted. The institute is also providing an extensive list of resources to identify PFAS in cosmetic products, such as Clearya.

Clearya is a free browser plug-in and mobile app that automatically analyzes cosmetics' ingredients while users shop online on platforms like Amazon and Sephora. It instantly notifies users of unsafe chemicals, including PFAS. Clearya's database revealed nearly 1,000 products from 120 brands containing at least one PFAS, with 34 different PFAS identified, and the most common being PTFE (Teflon). Some personal care products even contained multiple PFAS, such as a pore-cleaning foam with six different PFAS.

Being aware of the chemical compounds when shopping is an important step.

Dear colleagues,

We are excited to share the records of our gender webinar held on June 21, 13:00 - 14:30 CEST (GMT 2).

In English: https://youtu.be/xfJW5jPZKJE
In French: https://youtu.be/RXx5PvCVs1Q
In Spanish: https://youtu.be/taAQySFvguk
In Russian: https://youtu.be/B3W2BANw2TQ

Please feel free to drop your questions in the stream, we will be happy to interact!

Dear colleagues,

We are excited to share the records of our second webinar held on May 18, 15:00 - 16:30 CEST (GMT 2).

In English: https://youtu.be/5ZkCgLT58sA
In Russian: https://youtu.be/TyGQDoeoLtY
In Spanish: https://youtu.be/6obaRTfoDDo
In French: https://youtu.be/CJx1WK6nAi8

As promised in the webinar, we are hereby answering questions from the chat:

Q1. Over 90% share of data for National reporting (article 15) and other reporting purposes is generated inside NIP, however National Reporting is conducted separately from NIP, how do we ensure the coherence between NIP data and national reporting data?

Our speaker from UNEP, Chemicals and Health Branch, Components 1 and 2, Programme Management Officer Ms. Mihaela Claudia Paun answers:

"To date there was no or very limited coherence and consistency between NIP data and national reporting data. But now, with the new Stockholm Convention integrated electronic toolkit put in place such harmonization is happening and countries would be able to acknowledge the interlinkages with the reporting requirements from the very beginning of their NIP review and update process and would be able to address it in a coherent and coordinated manner."

Welcome new members to the NIP Update group!

Please feel free to say hello, introduce yourself, and ask questions if any. Our GGKP team remains at your disposal all the time!

Dear colleagues,

As it was mentioned in our first webinar, GGKP shall record not only the webinars but also take notes on the questions raised in Q&A sessions and chats. A summary of those questions which were addressed in the session will be posted in our group, as well as the questions from the chat which were not answered in the session shall be always recorded and answered in our NIP update group on Green Forum. Please don`t miss it, and we encourage you to join and ask any questions, whenever you find necessary, as the group is administered and managed by our project team on a regular basis.

Q. How is an updated NIP different from the previous NIP? Does it differ in terms of format or structure, or steps to approach review and update?

Our speaker from UNEP, Chemicals and Health Branch, Components 1 and 2, Programme Management Officer Ms. Mihaela Claudia Paun answers:

“When updating your National Implementation plan, we adhere to the same structure of NIP and the same five steps countries followed to develop their previous NIP.
In general, it is recommended to pay attention to the followings:

1. Update information and data included in the previous NIP and their related action plans (if the case).
2. Compile new information and data and develop action plans for newly listed POPs decided to be addressed during the update process.
When it comes to POPs data collection it is also important to refer to and use the latest version of guidance documents, including when it comes to updating previous NIP data.”