OECD REPORTING: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 003208

SIPDIS

FROM USOECD

STATE FOR EUR/ERA
EPA FOR OIA/JAYRES,SCORREA, AND BMCLEOD
STATE FOR OES/MGOLDBERG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV ETRD KSCA FR OECD
SUBJECT: OECD REPORTING: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
COMMITTEE MEETING, MARCH 2-3, PARIS, FRANCE


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SUMMARY
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Judith E. Ayres, Assistant Administrator for
International Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency,
led the U.S. delegation at the March 2-3 meeting of
the OECD Environmental Policy Committee (EPOC) in
Paris, France. The main outcome of the meeting was
the approval of a Program of Work and Budget for the
upcoming biennial 2007-2008 budget. With U.S.
support, the budget request (yet to be approved by
OECD Council) of 3.7 million euros for 2007 and 3.8
million euros for 2008 was approved. In addition, the
Committee elected Kevin Keefe of Australia as the new
EPOC Chair. The Committee received updates on the
OECD Environmental Outlook, a major project of the
committee projecting environmental trends to 2030;
discussed the state of OECD's country environmental
performance review program; approved the forwarding to
OECD Council a Recommendation on Good Environmental
Fiscal Management Practices; and received an update on
an enhanced environmental communications strategy
designed to facilitate the implementation of the
Environment Committee's new Strategic Vision. END
SUMMARY

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OPENING SESSION
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1. Chairman Mats Olsson opened the meeting, the agenda
was approved, and noted that the Strategic Vision was
approved and declassified on 1/30/2006. In his opening
remarks Deputy Secretary-General Kiyo Akasaka noted
that 2006 was the year for environment at OECD that
included the successful launch of the U.S.
Environmental Performance Review (EPR),the Strategic
Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)
Meeting, the World Water Forum, and the start of the
EPR for China. DSG Akasaka also stated that the
results of the medium-term orientation survey showed
high ratings for natural resource management, climate
change, and the horizontal project on sustainable
development. No environmental programs were at the
bottom of the OECD-wide ranking list.


2. Lorents Lorentsen, Director of the OECD Environment
Directorate, congratulated the group on the
development of the Strategic Vision. He also
highlighted the need for better modeling of
environmental policies and economic impacts; the need
to look at more efficient use of energy; and the need
for a stronger link between environmental degradation
and natural disasters. He also noted that the EPR
review team had just returned from China and needed
additional funding.

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OECD ENVIRONMENTAL OUTLOOK PROGRESS REPORT
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3. The OECD's Environmental Outlook is in the process
of being updated, with environmental and economic
projections to the year 2030. EPOC was briefed on the
status of this project. A draft outline for the
Outlook was presented composed of two parts. Part 1 is
the baseline, and Part 2 is simulations and analysis
of specific policy options for addressing
environmental challenges. A wide variety of comments
on the simulation component including those who liked
the idea of a modeling exercise and the USG who felt
it was more useful to concentrate on establishing the
best baseline possible, prior to designing policy
simulations. The topic of simulations will be
discussed more extensively at the upcoming Working
Party on Global and Structural Policies (WPGSP)
meeting. The project will report in depth at the EPOC
meeting in October. Also the Secretariat suggested
that a no action baseline, the effect of delaying
policy, be constructed.

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ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM OF WORK AND BUDGET (PWB)
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4. The Committee reviewed in detail and approved a
2007-2008 Program of Work and Budget (PWB). The zero
increase budget requires strong priorities statements
by members. The U.S. supported the 3.7 million euros
annual budget request as consistent with the overall
U.S. position that OECD's Part 1 budget should remain
constant. The U.S. also approved the addition of a
new budget "output" area "Environment in the Global
Economy." The budget will be submitted to the
Secretary General in June 2006 and then submitted to

SIPDIS
the OECD budget committee. During discussion, several
countries suggested that the titles of the Outputs
should align more closely with the Strategic Vision
titles that link more closely to core economic
interests. The Secretariat felt changing titles might
confuse things but that subtitles might be added that
link to the Strategic Vision. Several members
commented that they would like more mitigation in the
discussion of climate change (Germany, Hungary,
Ireland, Poland, Sweden, EU). Several countries also
found that the prioritization exercise was difficult
and many didn't do it. The Secretariat indicated that
it would investigate other approaches to prioritizing
for use in the future. The USG supported the proposed
overall budget as described in the PWB Overview
document. The USG also supported the proposed
allocation of Part 1 resources among the five Output
Areas comprising the Environmental Sustainability
"Output Group." After a good bit of discussion the
group endorsed the proposed budget for the PWB.

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INTEGRATING NON-MEMBERS
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5. Brendan Gillespie, Environment Directorate,
presented a detailed report on outreach policies and
activities. It was suggested that Global Fund for
Sustainable Development and Environmental Performance
Reviews were important outreach vehicles for EPOC. It
was also suggested that there should be closer
coordination with the OECD's Development Assistance
Committee. The U.S. expressed support for outreach
activities and supported EPOC support continuation of
environmental compliance assistance and enforcement
projects in non-member countries.

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ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS (EPR): BEYOND THE
SECOND CYCLE
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6. In early 2009 OECD will finish the second full
cycle of member nation environmental performance
reviews. The U.S. was successfully reviewed in 2005.
The Committee discussed options for the next cycle of
reviews, led by the Working Party on Environmental
Performance Chair Oyvind Lone of Norway. The
Environmental Performance Review program is one of
OECD's most promising tools and an effective outreach
strategy. USG is a strong supporter of this program
and supports increased resources within the upcoming
2007-2008 PWB. Rather than increasing resources for
EPR, several countries suggested that the reviews
should be used more strategically. Some countries
suggested conducting less holistic reviews and focus
on specific issues that are being considered in
international fora. Many countries, including the U.S.,
expressed the opinion that the time between reviews is
too long for trends to be identified. Several
countries (Australia, Norway, Switzerland) emphasized
the importance of derived products (e.g. An assessment
of water management policies across countries). The
USG reiterated that it might be interested in pursuing
derived products rather than solely pursuing country-
level reviews.

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PARTNERSHIPS
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7. A presentation of proposed and ongoing work on
partnerships was given. Part 1 of the analysis would
address whether different types of partnerships
require different types of evaluation. Part 2 would be
an evaluation framework and case studies. Canada
questioned whether this was heading in the right
direction. They suggested that the focus should be on
answering simple questions such as, what are the
conditions for effective partnership, and how do we
measure success? These questions were similar to those
previously raised by former EPA Administrator Leavitt.
The Secretariat noted that no voluntary contributions
have been received for this work, which was suggested
for EPOC by the U.S. at the 2004 Environment
Ministerial meeting.

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COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION OF GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL FISCAL
MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
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8. The U.S. and other members, with the exception of
Poland, approved the forwarding of this completed
recommendation to OECD Council for formal adoption.
The comments that the U.S. had provided earlier had
been incorporated into this draft version.

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UPDATED ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
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9. The Secretariat sees an effective communication
strategy as a way of maximizing the influence of the
OECD on national policy-making, and as a tool for
increasing Part 1 funding. They propose to better
target communications and to use existing tools more
effectively as they have limited central resources.
The suggestion was made that a communication expert be
hired or that one be seconded from a member nation.
U.S. was supportive of the new strategy, particularly
the designation of "flagship" activities or outputs
that would each have their own enhanced communications
strategy.

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OTHER BUSINESS
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10. The Committee elected Kevin Keefe as the new EPOC
chair and congratulated outgoing Chair Mats Olsson of
Sweden, Paolo Soprano of Italy and Kamil Vilinovic of
the Slovak Republic for their contributions.

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NEXT MEETING
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11. Logistical issues for EPOC's October 25-27 meeting
in Krakow, Poland were discussed. The meeting is
being held in Poland due to the ongoing space
constraints associated with the ongoing renovation of
OECD Headquarters.
MORELLA