Conclusion

Abstract

As early as 1978, international legal scholars observed a “confusing multiplicity of organizations, each with a narrow perspective on what is essentially a unified threat to human health and the environment” (Alston 1978: 415). Presently, matters are even more complicated, because the number of actors and activities has expanded over the past 25 years. Recent efforts aimed at channelling and coordinating such activities, including the broad strategic initiatives under Agenda 21, the WSSD, IFCS, and SAICM, and the coordinating efforts of the IOMC developed during the 1990s. The IFCS represented an attempt to bring government and private actors together to establish a joint strategy to combat global problems arising from chemical use. Now, although the SAICM may tie in with the IFCS and other approaches, it is conceptually different. One wonders what was so wrong with the IFCS that the need for the SAICM arose. Despite the fact that transnational cooperation is necessary, the chemical governance system seems to have attained an almost hypertrophic status.