Based on the experiences of past meetings the consortium will organise an initial project workshop as a start of the proposed research project (Winter, 2000). At this meeting the basis for the co-operation between the participants in the consortium and the possible sub-contractors will be set. An important goal of the workshop is to find a common approach of the issues under consideration in the research proposal. In addition, the participants will be requested to prepare an initial document with information about the scientific approach, the methodology, the databases to be used, etc. that are relevant for inclusion in the workpackages they are involved in. Finally, the workshop should enable the participants to exchange literature on the topics relevant for the workpackages.

To the initial workshop representatives of the European Commission will be invited as well as representatives of the Swiss AIJ Pilot Program of the Swiss Federal Office for Foreign Economic Affairs and the members of the project’s review team. The workshop will result in a basic report with a concise methodological assessment of the overall research project in general and the separate workpackages in particular. This document will be part of a briefing note that will be prepared for discussion at the sixth Conference of the Parties (COP6).

The first briefing note of the research project is envisaged to be prepared for November 2000 on the basis of the outcome of the initial workshop mentioned above and the (preliminary) results of the workpackages. In order to support the process of compiling this briefing note the participants will meet at a second internal project workshop. Also to this workshop representatives of the European Commission and the Swiss Government and the members of the review team will be invited.

A further open side meeting will be held to present the progress with the research project at an interim session of the UN FCCC negotiation process, probably a session of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation and the Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advice. Before COP7 (October/ November 2001), this procedure (internal workshop, briefing note, open side meeting) will be repeated. The results of the project will also be submitted to scientific journals with a peer-review process.

As explained in B.3 a consultation or review team will be set up. This team will be requested to periodically review the results of the project with a view on their political dimensions. Details about the review process are given in workpackage 14.

In order to support the process of drafting of the final report the project consortium will organise an open scientific workshop in February 2002. For this workshop the participants in the consortium will compile a draft of the final report. This will in principle be done on the basis of the outcomes of the workpackages. These outcomes will be incorporated in the draft report by the project co-ordinator in a process of electronic exchange of draft texts between the co-ordinator and the project participants.

On the basis of the discussions at the open scientific workshop an (electronically) accessible printed version of the final report will be prepared for dissemination to negotiators and policy makers. This version could contain a series of briefing papers of no more than five pages each. This policy makers version of the final report will be made available to the EU negotiators and policy makers in March 2002, which is in advance of the first UN FCCC sessional meetings in 2002 for negotiations in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol scheduled for May-June 2002. The dissemination will be enabled by using the internet homepage of the project co-ordinator as well as the internet homepages of the other participants in the consortium. In addition, the version for policy makers will be distributed via an electronic mail procedure.

The final report of the research project will be completed in May 2002 and presented at a side meeting during the first sessional meetings in 2002 for negotiations in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol scheduled for May-June 2002. It will also be published by an English-language publisher with a referee process in the form of a monograph.

All scheduling aspects of this work plan are described in further detail in the timetable below.

Timetable