January 23, 2008

53rd Meeting of the Executive Committee

The 53rd Meeting of the Executive Committee, which took place in Montreal from 26 to 30 November 2007, was attended by the representatives of the 14 Executive Committee member Parties and by participants co-opted from twenty other countries (see attached list).   Mr. Philippe Chemouny of Canada presided over his final meeting as Chair of the Executive Committee for 2007.  The Vice-President of the Implementation Committee of the Montreal Protocol, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat, representatives of the implementing agencies, the Co-Chair of the Technical and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP), a representative of the Government of Romania and a representative of the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy, also attended the meeting. 

The Fifty-third meeting presented the first opportunity for the Executive Committee to consider important issues arising from the Nineteenth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol that took place in September 2007 and the work that this would entail, including the major challenge of developing policies and guidelines to ensure that Article 5 countries could meet the accelerated HCFC phase-out schedule agreed at that meeting.  In addition since this was the third meeting of the year, the Committee followed the customary programme of work and considered the status of compliance of Article 5 countries and the model rolling three-year business plan which would guide the preparation of the agencies’ business plans for the 54th Meeting in 2008; the monitoring and evaluation programme for 2008; and, reviewed the 2007 consolidated project completion report.  Other important issues addressed included possible funding arrangements for institutional strengthening support after 2010 and a paper on the operation of the Executive Committee in respect of the number of annual meetings. 

At its 53rd Meeting, the Executive Committee approved investment projects and work programme activities with a value of almost US $45.2 million, including support costs, and took a total of 44 decisions. The most significant decisions and discussions in the meeting summary..