Open-Ended Working Group of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
Twenty-second Meeting (OEWG-22)

Montreal, Canada | 23 - 25 July 2002  

Monday,  22 July 2002

Many participants arrived in Montreal a few days early to attend meetings of the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund, and the Implementation Committee. On the eve of OEWG-22, an informal workshop on concessional lending took place, the bureau convened and negotiators met informally to coordinate their positions.

 28^th Meeting of the Implementation Committee

The Implementation Committee held its 28^th meeting in Montreal on Saturday, 20 July.  It considered a Secretariat report on the latest ODS data and heard statements from the Multilateral Fund Secretariat and the implementing agencies (UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, the World Bank).  The Committee reviewed the status of Parties that had previously been found to be in non-compliance or potential non-compliance, and identified possible new cases of non-compliance arising from the Secretariat report. 

As part of its deliberations, several Parties requested the Implementation Committee to revise their baseline data.  The Committee asked Parties to justify their requests with more information from different sources, and agreed to review the issue further at its next meeting.
Speaking after the meeting, a participant noted that most Parties previously identified as non-compliant/potentially non-compliant had made progress in moving back into compliance, with many of those Parties having now reported missing data or lowered their ODS use. 

37^th Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund

The Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund held its 37th meeting in Montreal from 17-19 July.  Over the course of the its past three meetings, the Committee has taken key decisions to give the Fund a more strategic focus in assisting Article 5 countries to meet their compliance obligations.  Discussions at this meeting were chaired by Executive Committee Chair Oladapo Afolabi (Nigeria) and centered on situations that might have an impact on the ability of Article 5 countries to meet their obligations.  The Fund Secretariat reported that, for the first time, the Fund would commit the entire budget for the year, plus the carryover for the present triennium.