1

Preparing for first meeting of the Conference of the Parties

2

Local arrangements

• Venue: Conrad Resort and Casino, Punta del Este, Uruguay

• Transportation between Montevideo airport and Punta del Este

• Hotel, visa and other local information are available at www.pops.int

• United Nations security requirements will mean delays in entering the building

3

SC COP-1 week-at-a-glance (1)

• Sunday, 1 May:– Registration from 2pm-6pm– Regional group meetings begin at 3pm (also

each morning during the week and other times as needed)

• Monday morning, 2 May:– Full security in place– Plenary from 10am-1pm (elect president, adopt

agenda & programme of work, establish Committee of the Whole & legal/budget group)

4

SC COP-1 week-at-a-glance (2)

• Monday afternoon, 2 May until Wednesday close of business– No plenary– Legal/budget group (cover: COP rules of

procedure, financial rules, other legal issues and budget

– COW (cover substantives issues including POPs Review Committee, DDT, wastes, unitentionally produced POPs, financial resources, technical assistance, etc.)

5

Possible contact groups under COW

• POPRC terms of refernce

• Guidance to the financial mechanism

• BAT/BEP expert group terms of reference

• Effectiveness evaluation

• Guidance on technical assistance

• others (?)

6

SC COP-1 week-at-a-glance (3)

• Thursday morning, 5 May, to Friday close of business, 6 May:– Plenary meets at the Ministerial-level

(speeches, decisions, adoption of reports)– Legal/budget group (focus mostly on

finishing the budget taking into account budget implications of decisions)

7

Lunch/evening briefings by:

• Canadian POPs fund• UNITAR• IFCS• IPEN• WHO• GEF• WTO• Japan

8

BAT/BEP guidelines decision may include:

COP may wish to:• Identify further work to be undertaken on the

draft guidelines and provisional guidance and determine the modalities for completing that work;

• Adopt, for immediate use by Parties pending further development, with any amendments, the draft guidelines and provisional guidance;

• Identify modalities for updating the guidelines and provisional guidance on a regular basis.

9

Further work on the guidelines:

• Immediate editorial fixes/improvements (cleaning up editorial problems, add a glossary, provide links to technology descriptions)

• Agreeing on modalities to fill gaps and better consider developing country circumstances (developing terms of reference for the group to do this)

10

Some options for a future group on BAT/BEP

• Mandate current group to continue with present terms of reference

• Mandate group to continue but with modified terms of reference to make it open to observers

• Establish an open-ended working group to deal with these issues

11

Some options for COP ownership of the guidelines

• Adopt guidelines recognizing further work needed

• Adopt guidelines on a provisional basis until further work is needed

• Note guidelines, request further work and consider at a future session

• Thank expert group for its work and ask for further work to be undertaken for future consideration

12

Your input is needed:

• What more information is needed?• How can the guidelines be made more user

friendly?• Where are the guidelines incorrect?• What are the gaps where more information is

needed• What sort of process (group and terms of

reference) would be best suited for future work on improving and updating the guidelines?

13

Conclusion

• The Secretariat will not take your recommendations/comments forward to the COP, Government will need to do so

• The window for influencing the process at COP-1 is very short so preparation, planning and consensus building ahead of time is key

• Regional group meetings provide a good opportunity for building consensus at that level