Dr. Bettina Hoffmann, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) said: “Environmental pollution with hazardous chemical substances, species extinction and the climate crisis are threatening our ecosystems and therefore our essential livelihoods. The answer to this ecological triple crisis is the transition to a sustainable, climate-neutral, largely pollutant-free circular economy. The chemical industry and politicians are both facing the challenge of shaping this transition and thus enabling sustainable, economic value creation. European chemicals legislation is a good starting point for tackling this challenge.”
Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency stated: “Persistent substances remain in soils and waters where they may pose unforeseeable risks. It must therefore be the aim of all stakeholders to avoid emissions of persistent substances into the environment as far as possible as a precautionary measure.”
During the congress, representatives of the relevant federal and state authorities also emphasised the importance of the interaction of REACH with other regulations, such as rules for products and industrial plants. A necessary basis for targeted measures to reduce the input of problematic substances into the environment is sufficient and available information on effects, uses and their environmental occurrence.
The consumption of resources by the chemical industry in Germany and the question of how a sustainable and at the same time competitive economy can succeed in achieving the goal of a pollutant-free environment were also discussed This cannot be achieved through legal regulations and official monitoring alone. The focus must be on structural change and innovation to avoid irreversible damage to health and the environment. In this regard, dialogue between all relevant stakeholders is essential in order to find and establish innovative solutions to reduce risks. The examples given by the experts in the discussion showed that it is possible to transform the chemical sector for a pollutant-free environment.
Background
The REACH Congress has been held every two years since 2012 and offers a unique forum for dialogue on the challenges and progress made in implementing the REACH European chemicals legislation in Germany. This year it was organised by the German Environment Agency together with the BMUV.
As the official environmental assessment centre, the German Environment Agency is responsible for assessing the environmental risks of chemicals. It advises the federal government and federal states and conducts its own research in this area.
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