UNEP/GEF Project - Russian Federation: Support to the National Programme of Action for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment 2nd Steering Committee Meeting April 25-26, 2007 Hotel “Oktyabr’skya”, Saint Petersburg, the Russian Federation REPORT on the Second Meeting of the Project Steering Committee Prepared by: the Project Office Status: approved by Project Steering Committee via electronic communication Table of Contents Report 2 Annex I List of Participants Annex II Agenda of the Meeting Annex III List of Documents Prepared for the Second Meeting of the Project Steering Committee Annex IV Progress Report on Project Implementation Annex V The Strategic Action Programme for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (SAP-Arctic) – Conceptual notes Annex VI Diagnostic analysis of environmental problems of the Russian Arctic (STC3/3(1)) Annex VII Project Documents for DEMOS-projects mentioned in the Project Document – BASES. Annex VIII Project Documents for DEMOS-projects mentioned in the Project Document - CLEAN-UP Annex IX Project Documents for DEMOS-projects mentioned in the Project Document - COMAN Annex X New DEMO-projects: DEMO-RITEG Annex XI New DEMO-projects: DEMO-FLAIR Annex XII New small demonstration and pilot projects Annex XIII Justification for prolongation of the NPA Arctic Phase I project Annex XIV Integrated Work Plan and Budget for 2007 and until the end of Phase I Annex XV Budget for 2007 and until the end of Phase I in correspondence with Russian requirements Annex XVI Russian co-financing of the Project Annex XVII Procedure of Co-financing through NEFCO Funds and Relevant Reporting Annex XVIII Procedure of Approval of Documents via Electronic Communication 2 REPORT Introduction The 2nd meeting of the Steering Committee for the UNEP/GEF Project “Russian Federation - Support to the National Plan of Action for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment” took place in Saint Petersburg from 25 to 26 of April, 2007 in the Hotel “Oktyabrskya”. The meeting was chaired by the Executing Agency represented by the Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation Mr. Boris Morgunov. Meeting started at 10.00 on April 25, 2007. A list of the Project Steering Committee meeting participants is given in Annex I to this report. 1. Agenda item 1. Opening of the meeting and adoption of the Agenda (STC 2/1) Mr. Morgunov welcomed participants and proposed to adopt the Agenda of the Project Steering Committee meeting prepared by the Project Office in consultation with both Implementing and Executing Agencies. The meeting adopted the Agenda. The agenda of the meeting is attached as Annex II to the report. Project Office prepared package of documents for the 2nd meeting of the Project Steering Committee. List of these documents is given in Annex III to this report. 2. Agenda item 2. Progress report on implementation of the Project (STC 2/2) The Information on progress in implementation of the Project has been prepared by the Project Office for the reporting period and has been circulated to Project Steering Committee members together with all other documents prepared by the Project Office to the 2nd meeting of the Project Steering Committee Project Manager (hereinafter designated as PM) noticed that the Project is behind the schedule and the main reason for that was a lack of official approvals of the Project IWP and the Budget for the 1st Phase by the Project Steering Committee as well as lack of approved Procedure for disbursement of donor funds accumulated in Trust Funds created by the Partner Agencies as well as problems with contractual issues with UNDP (UNDP postponed the finalisation of consultant contracts and payments for contracts for 5 months from July to November, 2006; PO was not able to rule out the situation). Starting from January of 2007 the PO changed its status and joined the ED NPAF as its department in accordance with an Agreement between Minekonomrazvitiya of Russia and the legal entity ED NPAF. Formalities proposed by the NAPF could not be also resolved during next 3 months, During the reported period the priority environmental issues of the Russian Arctic as a part of the diagnostic analysis have been identified, key SAP objectives formulated and work on tasks under SAP objectives is progressing. Project documents for demonstration projects have been prepared. In addition, new pilot and demonstration projects have been proposed. Key lessons learned have been also emphasised. ACOPS provided its comments to the Progress report, which according to the PM have been already partially taken into account in distributed version of the Progress report. The meeting approved Progress Report on the Project implementation that is enclosed as Annex IV. 3. Agenda item 3. The Strategic Action Programme for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (SAP-Arctic) – Conceptual notes (STC 2/3). PM presented conceptual notes of the SAP-Arctic and informed on measures taken to speed up the process of SAP-Arctic development. Issues concerning SAP priorities, Task Team performance, implementation indicators, time frames for SAP approval by federal and regional authorities and other issues have been raised during the discussion. The ExA representative also emphasised the final SAP document has to be adopted not only according to GEF/UNEP standards but also to the standards accepted in the Russian Federation for such kind of documents. The meeting approved in general the presented document. A round table with Russian stakeholders from Arctic regions will be held in the nearest future with the purpose to reflect in the SAP specific regional activities. It was decided to extend the SAP-Arctic by consideration of activities associated with offshore oil and gas operations and the increase of marine shipping associated with oil and gas transportation. It was also emphasised that the process of development of necessary costed and targeted measures (system of activities) to achieve formulated long-term objectives should be accelerated in order to start the process of their approval by federal and regional executing authorities as soon as possible and to include activities under the SAP Arctic into a Federal Targeted Programme to get funds for these activities implementation from the national budget. The system of activities for final approval by federal and regional authorities should be prepared by September – October 2007. The approved Conceptual notes are enclosed in Annex V to this report. 4. Agenda item 4. Diagnostic analysis of environmental problems of the Russian Arctic (STC2/3(1)) PM presented major finding of the diagnostic analysis (DA). The meeting agreed with proposal of the Executing Agency to publish the DA results in Russian and English after their consideration by Russian stakeholders, Project Steering Committee members and working groups of the Arctic Council. Two possibilities of presenting the DA results were considered: (1) as comprehensive report on current state of the environment in the Russian Arctic in limited amount of copies; and (2) as 4 concise report directed to more broader audience. Other possibilities of circulation of Project results should be also considered (movies, DVD, internet, etc.). A draft DA of the current state of the environment in the Russian Arctic is presented as Annex VI to this report. An example Chapters of the DA due to of its size can be downloaded from the Project web-site (http://npa-arctic.ru). 5. Agenda item 5. Consideration of work progress on PINS-component, PINS Guidelines and similar issues. PM informed on current state of the work on implementation of PINS component, in particular, work on updating and reviewing the information on hot spots as well as information on preparation of Guidelines for conduction of pre-investment studies. In particular, PM noticed that this project component implementation has been considered at several meetings of Project Supervisory Council. Concept of PINS development was approved by ExA, criteria for hot spots selection and PINS priorities has been considered at the meetings of the WG and Project Supervisory Council. Guidelines for PINS are also close for finalization (ready for 75%). The meeting has taken into consideration the information on the PINS component implementation. 6. Agenda item 6. Project Documents for DEMO-projects mentioned in the Project Document. DEMO-projects mentioned in the Project Document: BASES and CLEAN-UP were presented by PM and RAIPON representative Ms. Yana Dordina presented COMAN project. The following decision were taken on prepared documents: DEMO-BASES: Steering Committee supported the idea of implementation of this DEMO-project on Franz-Josef Land archipelago. The financial component of this demonstration project should be further elaborated by PO in consultations with Executing and Implementing Agencies within budget of US$ 250K. Steering Committee welcomed participation of NEFCO in this DEMO project. The nearest follow-up actions on this project will be an expedition to FJL archipelago in August-September 2007 to start actual remediation at a pilot territory and to evaluate further actions needed for completion of this project. The approved DEMO-BASES project document is enclosed in Annex VII to this report. DEMO-CLEAN-UP: Meeting approved the Project Document as a pilot project. It was proposed to attract a part of fund required for the implementation of this demo-project from ship-dismantling enterprise “Nerpa” where the demonstration is intended to be implemented. The owners of the proposed technology should present data on possible co-financing of this project to the Project Office at the end of May 2007. Project Office should agree the proposed co-financing with both Executing and Implementing 5 agencies. The approved DEMO-CLEAN-UP project document is enclosed in Annex VIII to this report. DEMO-COMAN: Meeting approved the Project Document however comments of the Executing Agency tabled during the meeting should be taken into account in the process of tender documentation preparation.