FCCC/SBI/1997/MISC.8

10 October 1997

ENGLISH ONLY

UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

SUBSIDIARY BODY FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Seventh session

Bonn, 20 - 29 October 1997

Item 3 (b) of the provisional agenda

COMMUNICATIONS FROM PARTIES NOT INCLUDED

IN ANNEX I TO THE CONVENTION

Views of Parties on a process for considering non-Annex I communications

Note by the secretariat

1. In accordance with Article 12.5 of the Convention, each Party not included in Annex I to the Convention shall make its initial communication within three years of the entry into force of the Convention for that Party, or of the availability of financial resources in accordance with Article 4.3. Parties that are least developed may make their initial communication at their discretion.

2. At its sixth session, the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) took note of the views expressed by Parties on the preparation and consideration of communications from

non-Annex I Parties ( FCCC/SBI/1997/MISC.5) and of two draft proposals for a decision by the Conference of the Parties at its third session (COP 3). The SBI invited Parties to submit further views on these matters by 8 September 1997. It further requested the secretariat to compile and make available these views at the seventh session of the SBI to facilitate consideration of a draft decision for submission to COP 3 (FCCC/SBI/1997/16, para. 19 and appendices I and II).

3. Two such submissions⁽¹⁾ have been received. In accordance with the procedure for miscellaneous documents, these submission are attached and reproduced in the language in which they were received and without formal editing.

FCCC/SBI/1997/MISC.8

GE.97-

CONTENTS

Submission No. Page

Luxembourg (on behalf of the European Community

and its member States) 3

(Submission received 8 September 1997)

EU PROPOSAL FOR A DECISION ON THE PROCESS FOR

CONSIDERATION OF THE INITIAL COMMUNICATIONS

FROM PARTIES NOT INCLUDED IN ANNEX I

Republic of Uzbekistan 5

(Submission received 10 September 1997)

PREPARATION AND CONSIDERATION OF

COMMUNICATION FROM PARTIES NOT INCLUDED

IN ANNEX I

SUBMISSION NO. 1: LUXEMBOURG

(on behalf of the European Community and its member States)

EU PROPOSAL FOR DECISION ON THE PROCESS FOR

CONSIDERATION OF THE INITIAL COMMUNICATIONS

FROM PARTIES NOT INCLUDED IN ANNEX I

The Conference of the Parties

Recalling the relevant provisions of the UNFCCC, in particular Articles 4.1, 7.2, 9.2, 10.2, 12.1, 12.5 and 12.7;

Recalling also its Decisions 4/CP.1, 8/CP.1 and 10/CP.2;

Noting in particular Art. 12.5 which provides that each developing country Party shall make its initial communication within three years of entry into force of the Convention for that Party, or of the availability of financial resources in accordance with Article 4.3 and that Parties that are least developed may make their submission at their discretion,

Noting the differentiated timetable for the submission of the initial national communications of Parties not included in Annex I and, consequently, the need for flexibility in its consideration of these communications;

1. Decides to establish the following arrangements for the consideration of the information contained in the initial communications of non-Annex I Parties.

a. The review should provide a technical assessment of the implementation of the Convention commitments by individual non-Annex I Parties. Its purpose is to review, in a facilitative, non-confrontational, open and transparent manner, the information contained in the communications from non-Annex I Parties to ensure that the COP has accurate, consistent and relevant information at its disposal to assist it in carrying out its responsibilities. The arrangements shall also enhance the comparability and focus of non-Annex I Party national communications and assist the secretariat's determination of the needs of non-Annex I Parties for the preparation of their national communications in accordance with Article 8.2(c).

1bis

Decides:

a. That each national communication submitted by a non-Annex I Party should be subject to an in-depth review within one year of receipt by the secretariat; such in-depth reviews should be carried out by expert review teams, under the authority of the SBI;

b. That the review teams should be coordinated by a representative of the secretariat and composed of experts from those nominated by Parties and, as appropriate, by international organizations;

c. That the review teams should conduct their work through in-depth assessments, guided by the purpose of the review and if helpful, visits to clarify the communications, with the prior approval of the Party concerned, would be helpful;

d. That each review team should produce a report on each in-depth review, written in an objective manner, and submitted to the SBI;

e. That the SBI should consider the in-depth review reports;

f. To make the necessary arrangements to finance the review process in the budget for the secretariat.

Requests the secretariat to:

i. use the communications it has received to prepare for consideration by the SBI a compilation and synthesis report; such a report should be prepared on an annual basis for the consideration of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation;

ii. also coordinate and facilitate the review process described above, including the organization of the in-depth reviews of individual national communications;

iii. select, under the guidance of the Chairs of the subsidiary bodies, the members of the review teams from names nominated by Parties to carry out these reviews;

iv. make available, with the permission of the relevant Party, the national communication and the report of the expert's review to the Council of the Global Environment Facility with the request that they make particular note of this information in their consideration of project proposals form the relevant Party.

3. Also decides that SBSTA shall, on the basis of the above synthesis report, further refine the guidelines for the preparation of the national communications from Parties not included in Annex I of the Convention.

4. Urges Parties not included in Annex I of the Convention to submit their national communications at their earliest convenience.

5. Request non-Annex I Parties to submit to the secretariat national inventory data on a regular basis.

SUBMISSION NO. 2: UZBEKISTAN

PREPARATION AND CONSIDERATION OF COMMUNICATION

FROM PARTIES NOT INCLUDED IN ANNEX 1.

1.1 The terms determined by Article 12.5 for the presentation of initial national communications are sufficient for their preparation provided by the timely financial support for work. Non-Annex Parties should make their efforts towards the undertaking of measures for the facilitation of initial communications and regular of updating of their national communications on voluntary basis.

1.2 In the course of consideration of communications the formal expertise and period of preliminary analyses of reports before their publishing should be envisaged. The deep expertise of reports with the purpose of identifying of the rational elements of policies and measures can be made on the basis of results of preliminary expertise.

1.3 In their national communication the parties should keep to the enhancement of reliability of social-economical and ecological data envisaging, in particular, the measures for technical development and strengthening of the network, of the collection and accumulation of data on emissions for the climate change prediction in their national programs.

1.4 The result of the communications analyses can be constructive recommendations on the further Convention implementation, the conclusion about the expediency of financial support and meeting the technological needs.

- - - - -

1. In order to make these submissions available on electronic systems, including the World Wide Web, these contributions have been electronically scanned and/or retyped. The secretariat has made every effort to ensure the correct reproduction of the texts as submitted.