11-13 April 2000, Copenhagen, Denmark

The Workshop on Best Practices in Policies and Measures under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) was held from 11 - 13 April 2000 at Eigtveds Pakhus, Copenhagen, Denmark. This workshop sought to clarify the concept of best practices in policies and measures, identify the criteria used by countries to select, monitor and evaluate these practices, enable countries to improve their best practice policies and measures, and enhance reporting on policies and measures. After three days of working group meetings and plenary sessions, the meeting drew to a close on Thursday afternoon, 13 April.

The workshop was co-sponsored by Denmark and France and organized by the FCCC Secretariat in cooperation with the Chairs of the Subsidiary Bodies of the FCCC. Over 140 participants attended, including representatives of governments, inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.

SBSTA Chair Harald Dovland (Norway) opened the meeting. In the opening plenary session, participants heard a number of presentations on best practices and good practices in policies and measures.

Claire Parker of the FCCC Secretariat outlined the objectives of the workshop.

ReaAudio coverage of the opening Plenary:

	The opening address of Svend Auken, Minister for the Environment and Energy, Denmark.
The opening address of Dominique Voynet, Minister for Environment, France.

ReaAudio of the presentations on the objectives of the Workshop and policies and measures as a tool to achieve the objectives of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol.

	Jonathan Pershing of the International Energy Authority, considered approaches to select and assess best practices in the context of national circumstances, including existing economic and institutional frameworks, interaction with policies other than climate policies and achieving goals for sustainable development.
	Ryutaro Yatsu, Global Environment Department, Environmental Agency of (Japan), presented the main conclusions of the Group of Eight (G8) Environmental Forum on domestic best practices. He noted that the Forum, held in February 2000 in Japan, identified and evaluated best practices, considered barriers to adopting best practices, and made recommendations for their future development.

Sessions on Best Practices in Policies and Measures.

Following the opening speeches and presentations, two parallel sessions were held during the afternoon on 11 April to consider national programmes and crosscutting issues.

The session on national programmes heard presentations from the UK, Poland, Canada, Australia, Bulgaria and Japan. The session on cross-cutting issues heard presentations from participants including: the European Commission on common and coordinated policies and measures within the EU; Saudi Arabia on the implementation of Article 2.1 a (v) of the Kyoto Protocol; Brazil on steps taken in the Brazilian energy and transportation sectors; Norway on domestic emissions trading in Norway; and Climate Action Network on the NGO perspective on best practices.

Wednesday, 12 April.

On 12 April participants to the workshop on best practices in policies and measures met in five sessions to consider the following: best practices relating to CO2 emissions from energy supply and industry; best practices relating to transport, households and commercial sectors; best practices to address emissions of non-CO2 gases from energy, industry, agriculture, forestry and waste; indicators used in the assessment of policies and measures; and methodological and institutional aspects of best practices. Participants heard presentations on numerous issues including on: energy supply in the OECD countries; the green electricity market in Denmark; efficiency standards for power generation in Australia; long term agreements in the Netherlands, policies and measures in the transport sector in Japan; labeling in the transport sector; policies and measures in the building sector; the Top runner programme in Japan; voluntary approaches to reduce fluorocarbons and methane emissions in the US; waste management in Austria; energy efficiency indicators in the Asia-Pacific region; the IEA energy indicators effort; climate change policies in Netherlands; and the Energy Charter Protocol.

Thursday, 13 April.

On Thursday 13 April, participants met in plenary to hear and discuss reports by the chairs of the working groups and participate in a panel discussion drawing together the threads of the issues raised during the preceding two days. Chair Dovland reflected on some of the key issues raised including the controversy over indicators, called for further workshops and drew the meeting to a close at 3:35 pm.

UNFCCC page on the Policies and Measures Workshop.
UNFCCC Homepage.
ENB's "Introduction to the Climate Change Process".
Other Climate Change links (NGOs, research institutes, etc).
European Environmental Law Homepage.
Linkages Climate Change page.