Distr.

GENERAL

FCCC/SBI/1999/INF.2

29 May 1999

ENGLISH ONLY

SUBSIDIARY BODY FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Tenth session

Bonn, 31 May - 11 June 1999

Item 3 (c) of the provisional agenda

1. The present note describes the status of in-depth reviews of second national communications (NC2) from Parties included in Annex I to the Convention. The reviews are being conducted in accordance with decision 9/CP.2⁽¹⁾ with the aim of completing them before the fifth session of the Conference of the Parties.

2. The majority of Annex I Parties (with the exception of Italy and Luxembourg) have submitted their second national communications, which were due by 15 April 1997 for Annex II Parties and not later than by 15 April 1998 for Parties with economies in transition. At the time of preparation of this note, 27 country visits had taken place in connection with the in-depth reviews of national communications and seven reports have been published. These reports are also accessible on-line via the World Wide Web. They bear the symbol FCCC/IDR.2/country code. The review visit dates, schedule of pending visits and status of the preparation of reports are presented in the table below. First national communications (NC1) from Lithuania and Ukraine, which were submitted on 21 March 1998 and 16 February 1998 respectively, are also subject to in-depth review this year.

GE.99-

3. In accordance with decision 4/CP.3⁽²⁾, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Slovenia have been added to Annex I. The amendment adding these Parties to Annex I entered into force on 13 August 1998. Consequently, first national communications from these Parties, according to Article 12.5 of the Convention, were due within six month after this date, namely by 13 February1999. Communications from these Parties are still pending, with the exception of Monaco which has already submitted its second national communication. The secretariat will endeavour to undertake in-depth reviews of national communications from these Parties recently added to Annex I as soon as they become available.

4. According to decisions of the Conference of the Parties, 500 copies of national communications are to be submitted to the secretariat for subsequent distribution, as well as an electronic version of an executive summary of the national communication. The secretariat has made available the full texts of the majority of the first and of all the second national communications received so far from Annex I Parties on its World Wide Web site (http://www.unfccc.de). The remaining communications will be made available on the Web as soon as their electronic versions are received by the secretariat.

5. Decision 6/CP.3 provided for the publication of full texts of the in-depth review reports as official UNFCCC documents and their translation into the other official languages of the United Nations. The secretariat was unable to arrange translation of the reports prepared so far due to an overload of the translation services at the United Nations Office at Geneva. Parties may thus wish to consider whether the in-depth review reports should be published in English only or how the situation should be addressed.

Annex I Party	Communication due date	Communication received date	Review visit dates	Notes
Australia	15.04.97	04.12.97	07-11.10.98	Visit done
Austria	15.04.97	31.07.97	30.03-03.04.98	Report published
Belgium	15.04.97	21.08.97	01-05.02.99	Visit done
Bulgaria	15.04.98	30.06.98	03-07.05.99	Visit done
Canada	15.04.97	05.05.97	11-15.05.98	Report published
Croatia*	13.02.99	-
Czech Republic	15.04.98	06.08.97	01-05.02.99	Visit done
Denmark	15.04.97	05.12.97	21-25.09.98	Visit done
E.C.	15.04.97	15.03.99	28.06-02.07.99	Dates confirmed
Estonia	15.04.98	31.03.98	01-05.02.99	Visit done
Finland	15.04.97	15.04.97	11-15.05.98	Report published
France	15.04.97	12.06.97	23-27.03.98	Visit done
Germany	15.04.97	16.04.97	16-20.02.98	Visit done
Greece	15.04.97	12.12.97	17-21.05.99	Visit done
Hungary	15.04.98	01.12.97	04.-08.10.99	Dates confirmed
Iceland	15.04.97	06.08.97	14-18.09.98	Visit done
Ireland	15.04.97	08.07.97	05-08.05.98	Report published
Italy	15.04.97	-	To be determined	Excerpt from NC2 received
Japan	15.04.97	02.12.97	30.11-04.12.98	Visit done
Latvia	15.04.98	02.06.98	17-21.05.99	Visit done
Liechtenstein	13.02.99	-
Lithuania (NC1)	15.04.98	18.05.98	22-26.03.99	Visit done
Annex I Party	Communication due date	Communication received date	Review visit dates	Notes
Luxembourg	15.04.97	-	Late 1999	Tentative
Monaco**	15.04.97	14.05.97	-	No review visit envisaged
Netherlands	15.04.97	14.04.97	28.09-02.10.98	Visit done

New Zealand	15.04.97	27.05.97	31.08-04.09.98	Visit done
Norway	15.04.97	16.04.97	05-09.10.98	Visit done
Poland	15.04.98	29.04.98	27.09-01.10.99	Dates confirmed
Portugal	15.04.97	26.11.97	18-22.05.98	Visit done
Romania	15.04.98	01.02.99	06-10.09.99	Tentative
Russian Federation	15.04.98	18.02.99	27.09-01.10.99	Tentative
Slovakia	15.04.98	06.08.97	14-17.04.98	Visit done
Slovenia	13.02.99	-
Spain	15.04.97	22.11.97	05-09.10.98	Visit done
Sweden	15.04.97	05.05.97	30.03-03.04.98	Report published
Switzerland	15.04.97	21.04.97	10-13.03.98	Report published
Ukraine (NC1)	13.02.98	16.02.98	27.09-01.10.99	Tentative
United Kingdom	15.04.97	13.02.97	07-11.12.98	Visit done
United States of America	15.04.97	11.08.97	20-24.04.98	Report published

* Italics denote Parties added to Annex I in accordance with decision 4/CP.3.

** Monaco notified the Depositary on 24 November 1992 of its intention to be bound by Article 4.2, subparagraphs (a) and (b).

1. For decisions of the second session of the Conference of the Parties see FCCC/CP/1996/15/Add.1.

2. For decisions of the third session of the Conference of the Parties see FCCC/CP/1997/7/Add.1.