THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 7 January 2020 — The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) made strides in the promotion of the Responsible Care® Programme in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, during a workshop held in Moscow, Russian Federation on 16-20 December 2019.
The training workshop, conducted in Russian and focusing on the best practices for developing the Responsible Care® Programme for the Chemical Industry, was organised by Russian Chemists Union’s (RCU) in cooperation with the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia for its fourth iteration since 2016 and was supported by the International Council of Chemical Industries (ICCA) and European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC).
RCU representative, Mr Igor Kukushkin, stressed: “Responsible Care® has already helped the Russian chemical industry move towards more sustainable development and we will be happy to help other countries in joining this programme.”
OPCW’s Senior Programme Officer, Mr Sergey Zinoviev, observed”: “This exercise will be instrumental for promoting multi-stakeholder cooperation in the participating regions in disseminating best practices in implementing chemical safety and security in the chemical industry.”
During the week-long workshop, participants became acquainted with the fundamentals of Responsible Care® – a global voluntary initiative developed autonomously by the chemical industry for the chemical industry and coordinated by the ICCA. As the participating countries are not ICCA members, outreach activities such as this one on Responsible Care® aim to stimulate their accession to the programme.
The workshop comprised lectures and presentations of case studies of Responsible Care® implementation in various enterprises. Practical exercises and interactive sessions covered consensus-finding for preventing environmental pollution, as well as strategic planning and decision making for the adoption of the Responsible Care® Programme. It was attended by 11 participants from 5 OPCW Member States including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Background
This workshop was implemented within the scope of OPCW capacity-building programmes in the peaceful applications of chemistry under Article XI of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Responsible Care® runs, as per the most recent ICCA report, in 67 countries covering 90% of the world’s chemical industry. The signatory chemical companies agree to commit themselves to improve their performances in the fields of environmental protection, occupational safety and health protection, plant safety, product stewardship and logistics, as well as to continuously improve dialog with their neighbours and the public.
As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW, with its 193 Member States, oversees the global endeavour to permanently eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997, it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
97% of all chemical weapon stockpiles declared by possessor States have been destroyed under OPCW verification. For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.