UNECE Working Group on Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Alexandra Serebryakova

1. UNECE Working Group on Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Alexandra Serebryakova Consultant, UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Europe

2. UNECE / WGEMA Established in 2000 to serve as an instrument for UNECE Member States to: • Propose action plans; • Provide recommendations; • Improve coordination of international initiatives in environmental monitoring, assessment and reporting; • Strengthen international initiatives within the region in the area of environmental monitoring and related areas. Major activities: • Assists the European Environment Agency in preparation of pan-European assessment reports for Ministerial Conferences “Environment for Europe”. • Assists countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia to build their environmental observation capacities and harmonize their approaches with those applied in EEA.

3. UNECE / WGEMA Prerequisites for Establishment • To promote the participation of all European countries, particularly countries in transition, in the work of the European Environment Agency in order to coordinate existing data collection and processing systems, as well as to ensure compatibility of data and reporting standards. • To provide the necessary information for the next pan-European state-of-the-environment reports. • To improve existing inadeqate mechanisms for coordinated monitoring, data collection, processing and management in the European region. • To improve the state of environmental information to support decision-making and the availability of reliable environmental information to the public.

4. UNECE / WGEMA Tools and Guidelines The WGEMA has established a task force, with the Russian Federation as lead country to: • Review the collection of meta information on available sources of environmental information and activities in EECCA countries; • Develop practical tools and instruments, using modern information technologies; • Improve the use and exchange of information in EECCA countries; • Harmonize EECCA approaches with those applied within EEA networks.

5. UNECE / WGEMA Major Recent Activities • Contributed to the Belgrade assessment report including reviewing a draft outline of the report, assisting in data collection in EECCA countries and reviewing the report's draft chapters and executive summary. • Established an on-line EcoReporting catalogue of national periodicals on the environment (state-of-the-environment reports, environmental statistical bulletins, etc.) and environmental reports submitted to international bodies, such as governing bodies of multilateral environmental conventions. • Finalized and tested the manual on the application of the core set of environmental indicators in EECCA. • Prepared guidelines for EECCA on integrated environmental monitoring and assessments, including requirements for monitoring networks, standards and formats, interagency cooperation, information management and reporting. • It considered a proposal by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and established a Task Force on Remote Sensing. • Organized a Workshop (Geneva, 11 June 2007) on Interaction between Air-Quality Monitoring and Air-Protection Strategies in Countries of EECCA. • Organised a Workshop on Enterprise Monitoring and Reporting (Warsaw, 4-6 September 2006) and prepared draft guidelines to EECCA authorities on strengthening environmental monitoring and reporting by enterprises. Source: http://www.unece.org/env/europe/monitoring/index.html

6. UNECE / WGEMA Indicators and Reporting The Working Group on Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, at its 7th session in November 2007 agreed upon the texts of: • (a) Guidelines for the application of environmental indicators in EECCA; • (b) Guidelines for the preparation of indicator-based environment assessment reports; • (c) Recommendations to Governments of EECCA countries for the application of environmental indicators and the preparation of indicator-based environmental assessment reports. Source: http://www.unece.org/env/europe/monitoring/IandR_ru.html

7. UNECE / WGEMA Summary: • Work on methodological issues of environmental indicators; • Help countries to further strengthen and harmonize environmental data collection, producing pan-European environmental indicators and promoting comparability of environmental statistics. Output expected at the end of 2009: • Review the list of indicators covered by the WGEMA's Guidelines for the Application of Environmental Indicators in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia from the point of view of official statistics; • Contribute to organizing a workshop on environmental indicators for countries jointly with the Environment, Housing and Land Management Division; • Help national statistical systems in countries in launching regular publication of environmental statistics compendiums and in modernizing the existing ones.

8. Thank you