Revised mandate for the Task Force on the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution

ECE/EB.AIR/106/Add.1
Decision 2010/1 Revised mandate for the Task Force on the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution
The Executive Body,
Noting with appreciation the effectiveness of the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution in documenting the growing scientific evidence of hemispheric transport of air pollution, and its impacts on health, ecosystems, and climate;
Further noting with appreciation the excellent work produced by the Ad Hoc Expert Group on Black Carbon, as well as ongoing work by the Arctic Council, the United Nations Environment Programme and others, on the growing evidence of potential impacts of air pollutants on the regional climate of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) area, especially the Arctic and high altitude environments;
Noting that the work of the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution should be conducted in collaboration with experts from other subsidiary bodies under the Convention, including the Task Force on Integrated Assessment Modelling, the Task Force on Emission Inventories and Projections and the Task Force on Measurement and Modelling, as well as the programmes and centres of work of the Working Group on Effects;
Decides to revise the mandate of the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution as set out in the Annex to this decision.
Annex Revised mandate for the Task Force on the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution
1. The Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution, under the leadership of the European Union and the United States of America, will examine the transport of air pollution across the northern hemisphere and its regional impacts, considering both air quality impacts and those on climate.
2. The lead Parties will assume principal responsibility for coordinating the work of the Task Force, for organizing its meetings, for designating its chair(s), for communications with participating experts, and for other organizational arrangements in accordance with the workplan.
3. The Task Force will carry out the tasks specified for it in the workplan adopted annually by the Executive Body, and will report thereon to the Steering Body to the Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP).
4. The Task Force will be composed of experts from the Parties to the Convention. Each Party will nominate a focal point to the secretariat. Meetings of the Task Force will be open to designated representatives of intergovernmental or accredited non-governmental organizations. The chair(s) are encouraged to invite individuals with expertise relevant to the work of the Task Force and experts from non-Convention countries in the northern hemisphere.
5. Appropriate technical documents for a meeting of the Task Force will be distributed by the secretariat to the focal point nominated by each Party to the Convention at least 30 days in advance of the meeting. Where this has not occurred, the report of the meeting will indicate that the relevant documents were not provided in sufficient time for consideration, unless the Task Force decides otherwise by consensus.
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6. At the end of each meeting, the Task Force will approve those parts of its report that constitute the key elements of its deliberations relating to the tasks assigned to it by the Executive Body. The report will be distributed by the secretariat to the focal points nominated by the Parties to the Convention and to the observers and experts who were present at the meeting.
7. All reports prepared by the Task Force for the Executive Body and other groups under the Convention will reflect the full range of views expressed during its meetings.
8. The functions of the Task Force will be to:
(a) Plan and conduct the technical work necessary to develop a fuller understanding of the hemispheric transport of air pollution across the northern hemisphere and the effects/impacts of potential mitigation options for consideration in the reviews of protocols to the Convention;
(b) Identify areas for coordination, as well as key issues for fostering complementary work and collaboration on the issue of particulate matter and its components, including black carbon and tropospheric ozone and its precursors by Parties under the Convention and by external bodies (including the Arctic Council/Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC));
(c) Cooperate closely with appropriate technical bodies under the Convention (e.g., the Expert Group on Techno-Economic Issues and the Task Force on Integrated Assessment Modelling) to estimate the extent to which these emissions and their impacts can be reduced, and regional climate co-benefits can be increased, by implementation of existing legislation and by implementation of specific control measures;
(d) Assess the impacts of emission-reduction opportunities in the UNECE region, as identified above, on regional and intercontinental transport of air pollution and their associated air quality, health, ecosystem and near-term climate effects; and begin to examine the impacts of complementary measures that might be taken in other regions where mitigation may prove more cost-effective;
(e) Identify the scientific and technical requirements (such as methods for emissions quantification, ambient monitoring and estimating global warming potential), as well as non-technical measures, needed for implementing options to reduce black carbon and ozone and their impacts in the region over time. This work should be done in collaboration with experts from subsidiary bodies under the Convention, including the Task Force on Integrated Assessment Modelling, the Task Force on Emission Inventories and Projections and the Task Force on Measurement and Modelling, as well as the programmes and centres of the Working Group on Effects;
(f) Develop a multi-year plan for carrying out further analyses on the tasks referred to in paragraphs (a) through (e), and report back to the EMEP Steering Body and Executive Body in 2011 for consideration in the 2012 workplan;
(g) Carry out such other tasks related to the above work as the Executive Body may assign to it in the annual workplan.
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