Please note that this is an on-going project.
Project Description
In close partnership and co-development with the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the Antarctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AnMAP) will serve as a science-policy body facilitating sufficient and reliable pollution data from the Antarctic and Southern Ocean region
Project Personnel and Beneficiaries
AnMAP serves the Stockholm, Rotterdam, Basel, and Minamata Conventions through delivery of quality assured data.
Outcomes to Date
The roadmap for AnMAP has been published in the Lancet Planetary Health https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(23)00076-1/fulltext
Project Significance
In 2021, the UN announced global chemical pollution as one part of a ‘triplet planetary crisis’ (alongside climate change and biodiversity loss). The advanced stage of this global threat calls for a step-change in the way in which chemicals are regulated globally.
In response, in 2022 the UN Environment Assembly (UN-EA) committed to establishing a UN Intergovernmental Science-policy Panel for the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste by 2024. This body is envisaged to serve in the same role as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change i.e., to provide policymakers with scientific assessments.
As with climate change, chemical pollution at the poles of the Earth serves as a barometer of Planetary Health, and robust data arising from these regions has a critical role to play in the support of global chemical policy, assessments, and decision-making.