Report from the 3rd Meeting of the Advisory Committee for the

Capacity for Climate Protection in Central and Eastern Europe Project

held on April 3, 2001, at the REC, Szentendre

The 3rd Advisory Committee Meeting had the following objectives:

• Review the status of the project and activities completed in the last year;
• Provide feedback on successes and failures;
• Provide comments and suggestions on draft case studies for policies and measures for climate change mitigation

This report will summarize the main topics covered in the meeting:

I. PROJECT STATUS

Dr. Elena Petkova, the WRI Project Manager, began the project status discussion by reviewing the three main goals of the project, namely policy research and analysis, contribution of NGOs to dialogues with governments, and outreach activities.

She listed activities accomplished since the last meeting of the Advisory Committee. These activities include: collaboration with national partners, the five assessments of national practices in AIJ, new grants for studies of good practices in policies and measures, national surveys on reporting and capacity for inventory preparation and first drafts of case studies on policies and measures.

Dr. Petkova then summarized the products of the past period, as follows:

• A regional report on AIJ experience;
• An assessment of CEE capacity to meet compliance requirements;
• A white paper on green taxation and climate mitigation-prepared in collaboration with another REC programme;
• A note on national JI programmes;
• A fact sheet on public participation in JI, published in 7 local languages;
• A fact sheet on CEE experience in AIJ;
• Contributions to a note on public participation in the flexibility mechanisms;
• The maintenance and regular updating of the project web site, which contains information on project activities.

The accomplishments and progress of the project were achieved through consultations (on the mechanisms and on capacity for reporting and inventory preparation) as well as through collaboration with other organizations and programmes such as OECD (Bratislava workshop), Environment for Europe (contribution to Ministerial meeting in June 2000) and EPA workshop on national registries.

Project outreach activities ranged from in-country workshops, media presentations, informal consultations during the SBSTA/SBI meeting in Lyon and at the 6th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 6) at the Hague, to mailing and electronic distribution of publications, participation in workshops, a brown-bag meeting for the U.S. EPA, et al.

The project has had a significant impact on the institutional development of all participants. The NGOs have seen a strengthening of their capacity for policy analysis and contribution to policy-making. The project has also assisted NGOs in cross-country learning, facilitated their participation and contribution to region-specific workshops and helped them provide analytical and staffing support (in secretariats, delegations) to national agencies. The project has given the REC the flexibility to expand its project team (currently 5 staff), cooperate with the REC Business and Environment Programme, and mainstream climate issues into other REC projects. On the WRI side, the project has facilitated senior management outreach to CEE decision-makers, as well as collaboration with the Climate Action Network on public participation.

II. CEE PRIORITIES FOR COPs

Tibor Farago, from Hungarian Ministry of Environment, summarized the priorities of the EU accession countries before the resumed COP6. Mr. Farago pointed out that the countries are now formally recognized as a compact group. He then listed key elements which the accession countries considered in the Hague, namely special emphasis on the JI, support for the position of EU on supplementarity and concern on potential overuse of the sinks, particularly for the CDM. In addition, he mentioned other issues of lesser political importance, such as capacity building, compliance mechanisms and reference to the Article 4.5. Mr. Farago informed the group that the accession countries were approached for a review of the so-called "Pronk paper" (political package), and mentioned problems with the coordination of such efforts. He expressed the strong opposition of the accession countries to re-negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol targets and recommended regular consultations of the accession countries with other groups of countries, particularly the EU and developing countries. He concluded by stating that the policy related priorities of the accession countries were in reaching agreement on all pending questions and in avoidance of bad compromises that would put the environmental integrity of the Protocol into disrepute.

Two of the accession countries' government representatives, Ewa Anzorge from Poland and Daniela Stoycheva from Bulgaria, supported the statements of Mr. Farago. The following discussion focused on the situation following the U.S. public announcement to abandon the Kyoto Protocol. The participants expressed their opinions on the new situation and common support for further continuation of the Protocol implementation even without the US.

III. BEST PRACTICES IN POLICIES AND MEASURES - CASE STUDIES

The NGO partners (in six selected CEE countries) have just produced case studies assessing good practices in domestic policies and measures to achieve the climate convention objectives. Zsuzsanna Iványi, the REC Project Manager, outlined the process leading to production of the studies. Elena Petkova summarized the criteria used for selection of the case studies, as follows:

• Amount of energy saved;
• Reduction of CO2 and other pollutants;
• Economic benefits (pay-back, cost-sharing, etc.);
• Introduction of new technologies and focus on RES/EE;
• Overcoming barriers for dissemination and awareness raising;
• Institutional development, sustainability of projects and their replication potential.

The following case studies were discussed:

1. Best Practices in Policies and Measures to Mitigate GHG Emissions in Bulgaria (EnEffect, Bulgaria).
2. Policies and Measures to Mitigate GHG Emissions in the Transport Sector in the Czech Republic (Center for Transport and Energy, Czech Republic).
3. Energy Efficiency Credit Line (Center for Environmental Studies, Hungary).
4. Best Practices in Policies and Measures in Energy Sector with a Special Regard to Renewable Sources of Energy in Poland (Institute for Sustainable Development, Poland).
5. Policies and Measures for GHG Emissions Reduction and Mitigation Strategies in Romania (Terra Millenium III, Romania).
6. Policies and Measures for GHG Emissions Reduction and Mitigation Strategies in Slovenia (Slovene E-forum, Slovenia).

Partner NGOs and the REC/WRI staff discussed and agreed upon format and contents of a planned regional report on best practices in domestic policies and measures which will be published later in 2001. Discussion on the case studies followed, and the Advisory Committee members posed questions to the different authors.

IV. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Before presenting planned future activities, Zsuzsanna Iványi invited Stephane Willems to briefly describe the OECD's work in the climate change arena. Following Mr. Willems' presentation it was agreed that closer collaboration between the OECD, WRI and the REC is viable and mutually valued.

The activities planned for the rest of the year 2001 are as follows:

• 18-19 April - a roundtable entitled "JI and the business sector". The roundtable will discuss opportunities for involving the business sector in the accession countries into flexibility mechanisms;
• end of May - publication of a report on capacity needs of 6 CEE countries. The report is based on surveys and examines the institutional infrastructure and skills needed to meet future compliance requirements and to participate in the mechanisms;
• June/July - announcement of a new round of NGO grants;
• July - COP6bis will resume in Bonn. The project will launch the report on capacity needs;
• 13-14 September - a workshop on good practices in policies and measures;
• October - a regional report on good practices in policies and measures will be published. The report will contain six case studies.

The above activities are in the current work plan for the year. As the REC-WRI project enters into its next round of grants and activities, REC project manager, Zsuzsanna Iványi, also presented several topics for consideration by the Advisory Committee and partner NGOs. The following topics and activities have emerged as options from discussions, consultations, and meetings held by the project:

• Guidelines for JI which will be accepted by the EU and accession countries. Such an activity will respond to current interest and needs of the EU, the business sector and accession countries;
• public participation - NGO assessment and regional workshop. This topic can be the focus of the next grants to NGO partners.
• training workshop/seminar on methodology and uncertainty related to preparation of emission inventories in the accession countries;
• business involvement in flexibility mechanisms - finding incentives to get accession country businesses more involved into the JI. A specific activity that was mentioned was the creating of a clearinghouse which could link with the EU clearinghouse under development;
• participation in the IPCC workshop on policies and measures - organizing a special accession countries' section of the workshop in order to have a wider audience and richer feedback;
• exploration of opportunities for closer ties between the CAN CEE (and other NGOs) and REC/WRI;

The Advisory Committee members and partner NGO representatives expressed their particular support for a stronger project focus on JI guideline rules and public participation. A focus on public participation should range from assessment of current disclosure and participation framework and practices to raising public awareness at the national level. Because of complexity of the preparation of national emission inventories, several Advisory Committee members expressed their reservations about the possibility for the REC/WRI project to assist in this area.

In addition, several other topics were also briefly discussed:

• creation of a clearinghouse for existing national methodologies for JI projects and criteria for their selection used by different countries;
• creation of a questionnaire to verify understanding of the business sector of climate change issues;
• a pilot climate programme of local governments which can promote cooperation with NGOs at the local level (also as a possible first step for capacity building);
• green procurement guidelines for national and local governments;

Further discussion identified the need for a more equal geographical representation in future Advisory committees, with increased weight for the Baltic region. Workshop participants also suggested to exploit already existing networks (Agenda 21, Energy efficiency, etc.) to increase the effectiveness of future project activities. Finally, the group noted the urgent need to promote dialogue between the G77+China group and the CEE, in order to find common ground for a more convergent strategy within the UNFCCC debate.