Institutional arrangements to guide policies

Several countries have institutional arrangements to guide climate-related policies and measures.

These initiatives include working or other ad hoc groups as part of existing arrangements dealing with environment and development (e.g., the Hungarian Committee for Sustainable Development) or new multi-stakeholder institutions (e.g., the Inter-ministerial working group on climate in Latvia, the Inter-Ministerial Committees in Russia and Poland).

Several Ministries of the Environment have also allocated staff time to oversee climate-related policies and measures.

These climate-focused institutional arrangements are positive steps, which indicate that Annex I Economies in Transition (EITs) are taking their obligations under the Climate Convention seriously.

However, the current existing institutional infrastructure is weak and far from sufficient. In most cases, for instance, the climate-focused committees and working groups have an advisory rather than decision-making capacity.

Institutional capacity and staff resources in the ministries of the environment are also extremely limited and cannot fully support climate-related policies or the integration of climate objectives into development policies and priorities.

Key decision-makers and the agencies that will ultimately need to implement many of the proposed measures (or integrate them into their restructuring programs) are rarely fully involved or informed.

Sectoral pressures in these agencies, as well as lack of understanding of the opportunities and commitments, have created an unwillingness to cooperate.