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Background

1. In paragraph 17 of its decision 19/13 C of 7 February 1997, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called upon Governments and other actors to "provide the United Nations Environment Programme with the necessary financial and technical resources to enable the full and effective functioning of the intergovernmental negotiating committee, in particular the full and effective participation of developing countries, especially least developed countries, and of countries with economies in transition which may be interested". In paragraph 12 of the same decision, the Council also requested that the international legally binding instrument for international action to reduce/eliminate releases of persistent organic pollutants be concluded preferably by the year 2000.

2. In order to facilitate planning towards the successful and timely completion of the negotiations, the secretariat has produced the present information document, which will be updated for subsequent meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on meeting schedules and financial needs. For planning purposes, the secretariat has estimated that the negotiations of the convention on persistent organic pollutants are expected to include, in total, five meetings of the INC as well as three inter-sessional meetings of the Criteria Expert Group (CEG). Following the completion of the negotiations, a conference of plenipotentiaries will be held to adopt the convention and any resolutions deemed necessary by Governments, and for signature of the convention.

3. In addition to the question of covering the financial requirements for the negotiations, the Governing Council, also in decision 19/13 C, requested UNEP to undertake immediate action to promote the reduction and/or elimination of releases of POPs into the environment. The financial requirements for those actions are not addressed in the present document, but a number of Governments have made very significant contributions towards UNEP’s work in this regard.

I. TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATING

COMMITTEE AND THE CRITERIA EXPERT GROUP

4. The schedule of meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) and the Criteria Expert Group (CEG), in chronological order, is as follows:

II. COST ESTIMATES FOR FINANCING THE NEGOTIATIONS AND STATUS OF FUNDS

5. The estimated cost for each meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee is between $575,000 and $625,000, while that for each meeting of the Criteria Expert Group is between $387,500 and $425,000. /

6. The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden has generously offered to host and fully fund the diplomatic conference. The cost requirements for that meeting are not considered in the present document.

III. FINANCIAL MATTERS, 1998

7. The first session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee was hosted and fully funded by the Government of Canada, while the first meeting of the Criteria Expert Group was hosted by the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and funded through contributions from the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom.

IV. FINANCIAL MATTERS, 1999-2000

8. The estimated financial requirements for the meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee and the Criteria Expert Group during 1999-2000 are between $3,075,000 and $3,350,000, calculated on the basis of four sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee and two meetings of the Criteria Expert Group. As of 20 January 1999, contributions and pledges, which may be applied to 1999-2000 meeting-related costs, have been received from Austria, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN). The total of these pledges and contributions is approximately $455,000.

9. To compensate for the inevitable time-delay between pledges and the availability of funds to meet expenses, the Executive Director of UNEP has provided $320,000 from the UNEP Environment Fund reserve, on a reimbursable basis, to enable the second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to take place.

10. The spending priorities for donor contributions, once received, are to reimburse UNEP for meeting costs associated with the second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee and to fund the second meeting of the Criteria Working Group.

11. The estimated outstanding financial requirements for meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee and Criteria Expert Group during 1999-2000 are between $2,620,000 and $2,895,000.

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