2025 IPCP General Assembly

The information about this year’s General Assembly is provided below and was sent as a calendar invite — please reach out to admin@ipcp.ch if you have not received the invitation or have possible questions. The board is very much looking forward to reconnecting with the other IPCP members.

Venue: Online meeting via Zoom
Date & time: Wednesday, December 10 at 14–16h CET (2 hrs)

Interested in leading an IPCP activity or joining one already underway?

Thanks to the support of the IPCP members, the IPCP has several working groups. The overall idea for these groups is to translate a joint interest or concern into something more actionable, which can take different forms such as publications, reports, open letters, webinars, etc. The IPCP does not have funding available to financially support these activities, which are member driven with some support from the board members. You can learn more about the current working groups that are open for additional IPCP members to participate. IPCP members interested in joining any of the IPCP groups should reach out to admin@ipcp.ch.

Formal approval for a planned IPCP activity can be requested by an IPCP member by submitting a proposal via this Google form.

PFAS definition

The sign-on campaign with support from over 400 scientists & practitioners from 52 countries helped raise IPCP concerns about efforts to redefine PFASs by a task group of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Following our piece published in ES&T Letters and the awareness that the sign-on campaign helped create for this issue, members of IUPAC and specifically the PFAS task group reacted via a Correspondence just published in ES&T Letters.

Among other details, the Correspondence acknowledges that regulatory definitions are not within the scope of IUPAC, which was a key point of concern in our original piece. We welcome this clarification, which alleviates some of our concerns. To address all points raised in the Correspondence by IUPAC members, we prepared a rebuttal. As the exchange touches on several details that you may be interested in, we recommend you read all three documents to make your own assessment.

Strengthening the role of science: Apply for accreditation with UNEP

The IPCP encourages universities and independent research institutions to seek accreditation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Gaining this status offers the opportunity to bring scientific knowledge directly into global environmental decision-making.

Why accreditation with UNEP matters:

  • Accreditation grants access to UNEP documents, meetings, and debates, enabling institutions to follow and contribute to global policy processes.
  • It helps amplify the voice of science in multilateral environmental agreements and ensures that research findings inform environmental governance.
  • Through participation as accredited organizations, academic institutions can deepen collaboration with policymakers, NGOs, and other stakeholders working on sustainability, chemicals, climate, biodiversity, and related issues.
  • Accredited organizations can provide delegates from under-resourced countries scientific support, insights, and briefings.

Several IPCP board members have experience with the accreditation process. If your institution is interested in exploring the possibility of obtaining accreditation with UNEP and would like some additional guidance, please reach out to admin@ipcp.ch.

Global seminar: Solutions for the ONE WORLD

The One World Seminar, an initiative under the umbrella of the IPCP, was organized and held at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig from September 17–19. This seminar emerged from the IPCP Working Group on Monitoring Chemical Pollution in Low-Resource Settings and brought together researchers from across the globe, with strong participation from low- and middle-income countries in the Global South. Among the contributors was IPCP board member Prof. Maria Clara Starling from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Focusing on environmental pollution by chemicals and the associated risks to ecosystems, animals, and human health, the seminar featured oral and poster presentations, as well as dedicated discussions on future collaborative actions. In addition to knowledge sharing, participants received sampling kits to launch a pilot study aimed at detecting more than 700 target chemicals in rivers and streams in their home countries—an effort that will generate much-needed data on chemical pollution in the Global South.

ES&T Letters: Corporate ‘capture strategies’ impacting human and ecosystem health

This recent review article, authored by the IPCP board members, sheds light on a pressing yet under-recognized challenge in environmental governance. Through a literature review, we detail how corporate actors employ subtle and systemic tactics to influence policy, research, and public discourse.

Webinar: Global governance on endocrine disruptors: From science to policy

The IPCP Chair Martin Scheringer was part of a UNEP panel of experts discussing how independent science, policy, and research on endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can be translated to strengthen global governance of EDCs, both globally and locally. You can watch the recording here.