Distr.

GENERAL

FCCC/SBI/1997/13

Please note that, due to technical difficulties, 25 July 1997

the headings on pages 4 - 17 are missing.

SUBSIDIARY BODY FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Sixth session

Bonn, 28 July - 5 August 1997

Item 4 (b) of the provisional agenda

1. According to 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 countries (LDCs) may make their initial communication at their discretion.

2. The secretariat has received initial national communications from two

non-Annex I Parties, Argentina and Jordan.

3. In order to present to the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) an overview on the current status of preparation of national communications of all non-Annex I Parties, the secretariat has been collecting information on the indicated dates of submission and on the status of work on elements of initial national communications. Such information is presented in annex I to the present document and reflects the responses of non-Annex I Parties to a questionnaire sent by the secretariat, as well as information provided by the

Global Environment Facility (GEF), its implementing agencies and by bilateral programmes. The above-mentioned questionnaire is attached in annex II. In order to contain the best possible updates and greater detail than the document submitted to the subsidiary bodies at their fifth sessions (FCCC/SB/1997/INF.1, annex I), the present document is only available in English and distributed at the meeting.

GE. 97-

4. The table in annex I covers 129 non-Annex I Parties to the Convention of which 40 are LDCs. Taking into account the two Parties which have submitted their national communications, information on the status of preparation of national communications is available from 109 Parties, of which 72 are not LDCs. Thirty-four of the latter have submitted or indicated a date for the submission of their initial national communication. In addition to Argentina and Jordan, another 16 Parties are expecting to finalize the preparation of their national communication in 1997, while another eight, six and two Parties have indicated submission dates during the years 1998, 1999 and 2000, respectively. Dates of submission of their initial national communication have been indicated by eight LDCs, of which three, four and one countries intend to submit in 1998, 1999 and 2000, respectively.

5. Funding for the preparation of national communications of non-Annex I Parties and related activities is available through the financial mechanism and other sources. While it is difficult to provide consistent and concise information covering all these sources, data on the flow of resources from the GEF is available in document FCCC/SBI/1997/MISC.4.

6. Of the 72 non-Annex I Parties, for which information on the status of preparation is available and which are not LDCs, there are two countries which have submitted and

30 countries which have ongoing activities towards the preparation of their first national communication. Another nine of these Parties have obtained the approval of the GEF for national projects and can be expected to be at least in the initial stages of implementing activities, while 12 Parties are preparing, in collaboration with implementing agencies, national projects for GEF funding. In 19 of these countries, activities for the preparation of a national communication are yet to be initiated, even though some may have undertaken partial work in the context of regional or global enabling activity projects. Finally, there is a group of 17 such countries for which no or only scant information exists on the process of preparing initial national communications.

7. Information on the status of preparation of national communications is available from

37 of the 40 LDCs which have ratified the Convention. In eight of these countries, activities are ongoing, another 13 have obtained approval of the GEF for projects at national level, while five are preparing projects for GEF funding. In 11 countries, activities for the preparation of national communications are yet to be initiated. Regional or global projects are being undertaken in some of these countries.

8. Parties are invited to update and amend the information provided in annex I.

A questionnaire is attached for this purpose in annex II of this document which, upon completion, may be returned to the secretariat.