This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

151401Z May 06

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) 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶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