The Geneva Environment Network has hosted a discussion on the threats posed by chemical weapons and efforts to rid the world of them.

The event was opened by Henrik Slotte, Chief of UN Environment’s Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch, and Adam Koniuszewski, Chief Operating Officer of Green Cross International.

Paul Walker, Green Cross International’s Environmental Security and Sustainability Programme Director, spoke about the history of chemical weapons abolition and the next challenges on the horizon. Paul, who works in Washington D.C, is one of the world’s leading advocates for the abolition of chemical weapons.

Paul has helped to safely and verifiably eliminate more than 65,000 metric tons of chemical weapons from six declared national arsenals. During the event, he provided fascinating insights into how he has engaged government leaders, NGOs, think tanks and citizens’ groups around the world to work towards full implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and for a world free from the dangers of the weapons. He said that progress in eliminating chemical weapons stockpiles - the “most dangerous stuff” - has been impressive. Attention can now be turned to other areas that have been ignored until now, such as old buried weapons, he noted.

Muralee Thummarukudy, Senior Programme Officer at UN Environment, spent time in Syria during the chemical weapon destruction process that took place in 2014. At the request of the UN Secretary General, UN Environment provided environmental expertise to the Joint UN-OPCW mission to destroy Syrian chemical weapons, advising on environmental safeguards for all steps of the process, starting from transportation from the storage site, loading in the port of Latakia, to the final destruction aboard the US Ship Cape Ray.

The event was closed with remarks by Marie-Gaëlle Robles, Counsellor at the Permanent representation of France to the Conference on Disarmament. “The international chemicals regime is quite a strong one,” she noted, while stressing that challenges remain, as shown by the situation in Syria, and that “a vast amount of technical expertise” is needed to tackle them.

“The environmental dimension cannot be taken in isolation from the security and disarmament process. These have to go hand-in-hand in order to be successful,” she underlined.

For more information - including the presentations made during the event – please click here or write to diana.rizzolio@unep.org