21st Meeting of the Members of the Steering Committee of Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development

13-14 May 2020. The UfM is taking part in the 21st Meeting of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD) Steering Committee that will be conducted through a teleconference on 13-14 May 2020. The meeting follows the 2019 December of COP 21 of the Barcelona Convention, where decisions related to pollution and marine litter, biodiversity and marine protected areas, integrated coastal zone management, sustainable development and various assessment studies were adopted, including the UNEP/MAP Programme of Work and Budget for 2020-2021 and a roadmap for the proposal of a possible designation of the Mediterranean Sea as an Emission Control Area for Sulphur Oxides.

The agenda includes exchanges with the UfM regarding:

– Regional Assessments and Knowledge Exchanges of High- and Low-Tech Solutions successfully Implemented to Achieve Waste Reduction to be run with UfM through the EU funded Water and Environment Support Project, in collaboration with MIO-ECSDE and in line with the UfM Ministerial work on green, circular economy;

– Consultation on MedECC First Mediterranean Assessment Report (MAR1) and its Summary for Policymakers (SPM) to contribute to well establish sound processes on climate change assessment at Mediterranean and contributes to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with a chapter dedicated for the first time to the Mediterranean

– Barcelona Convention Secretariat, including MAP Components, contribution to to the UfM consultation (online questionnaire) on the Blue Economy towards the preparation of the Second UfM Ministerial Meeting on Blue Economy (tentatively planned in July 2020). This contribution was transmitted to the UfM Co-Presidency

Furthermore, the meeting will address the preparation of a MED2050 Foresight Study; the 2019 State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean Report (SoED 2019), under finalisation; and, the Accession to and Implementation of the Aarhus Convention on Public Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention).