According to the workplan for the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents for 2021–2022, the following core activities, including activities to implement the Convention’s long-term strategy until 2030, are to be implemented during the biennium:
a) Outreach, awareness-raising and strategic partnerships
- Targeted communication (newsletters, press releases, leaflets, postcards, website, social media, promotion of brochures and online training on industrial accidents and participation in international and regional meetings and forums)
- Working visits and high-level missions to Parties
- Working visits to other stakeholders
- Meetings with partner organizations to coordinate joint activities, including inter-agency coordination meetings
- Donor meetings and bilateral visits
Supporting body: Bureau
b) Facilitation of implementation
- Risk assessment: Development of a study on risk assessment methodologies
Lead/supporting countries: Switzerland, with contributions from the members of the small group on risk assessment, representing Austria, Belarus, Latvia, Serbia and Slovenia
- Sustainable Development Goals / Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: Support for countries’ implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including its Sustainable Development Goals, and of the Sendai Framework with a focus on industrial accident prevention and preparedness by contributing to the relevant reports on the Goals, the Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction for Europe (including countries of the Caucuses, Eastern Europe and South-Eastern Europe) and Central Asia, and meetings and platforms
Supporting organization: European Union/European Investment Bank
Addressing technological/industrial accident risks in national DRR policies and plans of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
- Natech risk management: Natech-III Project: Development of a brochure and guidance on Natech risk management, under the leadership of OECD and Germany, and in partnership with UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit, The European Union JRC, and other countries part of the Steering Group; raising visibility of the Convention’s role with respect to Natech, exchange of experiences and good practices in the framework of seminar, organized in cooperation with partner organizations
Lead Party/organization: European Union/European Investment Bank and France, with contributions of members of the small group on DRR and Natech, representing Norway (lead), Belarus, Finland, Russian Federation and Slovenia
- Land-use planning and industrial safety: Follow-up to the exchange of information on land-use planning and industrial safety (2016–2022 seminars/workshops): dissemination of outcomes, maintenance and update of repository of good practices and lessons learned; fostering governance and policy coordination among related disciplines, in collaboration with the ECE Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management, the Aarhus Convention and the Espoo Convention and its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment
- Experiences and good practice on implementation: Exchange of experiences and good practices on the implementation of the Convention, including: (a) a seminar on good practices submitted through national implementation reports; and (b) a seminar in follow-up to the Beirut accident
Lead Party/organizations: (a) Netherlands, with the support of the Working Group on Implementation and (b) Austria, as lead of advisory group for the seminar in follow-up to the Beirut accident, including members from the European Union, Germany, Latvia, Sweden and Switzerland; organizing committee of partner organizations including ECE, UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit, OECD and ILO
- Preventing accidental water pollution: Follow-up to 2019 contingency planning seminar; Strengthening of cooperation with river basin commissions
Lead/supporting Parties: Hungary and Germany, with the support of the JEG, in cooperation with the Water Convention
- Promotion and translation into national languages of JEG-developed guidance and good industry practices
Lead/supporting Parties/organizations: Czechia, Rep. of Moldova and Romania on firefighting water retention and management, and Germany on checklist methodology on TMFs, in cooperation with river basin commissions, such as ICPDR and the Water Convention, though the JEG
c) Servicing intergovernmental bodies and expert groups
- Twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties
- Meetings of the Bureau (estimated 4)
- Meetings of the Working Group on Implementation (estimated 4)
- Meetings of the Working Group on the Development of the Convention (none foreseen in this period)
- Meetings of the Joint Expert Group on Water and Industrial Accidents (estimated 1)
d) General programme management
- Other secretariat activities, including human resources, financial and other management-related functions, administrative actions needed to ensure the functioning of the ECE Industrial Safety Unit and, as part of the ECE secretariat, reporting on substantive and administrative issues.