Basel Convention COP15: Should non-hazardous electronics be subject to import and export controls?

KATHARINA’S INTERVIEW WITH SILVERADO POLICY ACCELERATOR

This week, Parties to the Basel Convention discuss the extension of the Convention’s control system to some types of electronic wastes thus far not defined as hazardous. This would help protect vulnerable countries from uncontrolled imports of waste that they are not equipped to handle, but would also impede extraction of Rare Earth Metals and other types of valuable materials in those countries that are equipped to do so. As the Convention’s former Executive Secretary and member of the Strategic Council of Silverado Policy Accelerator, Dr Katharina Kummer Peiry shares her views on how the Convention could achieve the challenge of promoting the desirable while preventing the illicit in international waste management.