Rome, Italy, from 29 September to 3 October 2025
Venue: FAO Headquarters, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
Overview
The twenty-first meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee will take place from 29 September to 3 October 2025, back to back with the twenty-first meeting of the Chemical Review Committee of the Rotterdam Convention.
The Committee will review outcomes of the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention, held from 28 April to 9 May 2025, that are relevant to its work.
The Committee will consider the draft risk profile for polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans and mixed polybrominated/chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans. At its twentieth meeting, the Committee agreed that these substances, proposed for listing in Annex C to the Convention, met the screening criteria in Annex D. It also decided to establish an intersessional working group to further review the proposal and prepare a draft risk profile.
The Committee will also initiate the process for the evaluation of the continued need for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride (PFOSF) for acceptable purposes and specific exemptions, pursuant to paragraphs 5 and 6 of part III of Annex B to the Convention. In addition, the Committee will begin the process for the review of the specific exemption for the use of perfluorooctyl iodide (PFOI) for the production of perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB) for the purpose of producing pharmaceutical products, pursuant to paragraph 3 of part X of Annex A to the Convention. The actual evaluation and review will be undertaken by the Conference of the Parties at its thirteenth meeting in 2027.
Furthermore, the Committee will consider how to support the review of medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs) pursuant to paragraph 2 of part XIII of Annex A to the Convention, which will be undertaken by the Conference of the Parties at its fourteenth meeting in 2029. It will also address how to support the review of specific exemptions for MCCPs, pursuant to paragraph 12 of part XIII of Annex A to the Convention, to be underaken by the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth meeting in 2031.
In addition, the Committee will review: the indicative lists of substances covered by the listings of long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), their salts and related compounds, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), its salts and PFOA-related compounds, and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), its salts and PFHxS-related compounds; the submission of information specified in Annex F to the Convention; and the implementation of notes (i), (ii), (iii) of part I of Annex A and B to the Convention.
Working languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.