About us

Details

General presentation

At its 33th session in December 2014, the Executive Body (EB decision 2014/2) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE) Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) approved the upgrade of the Expert Group on Techno-Economic Issues (EGTEI)  to Task Force on Techno-Economic Issues, TFTEI (see the mandate below) and merge the discontinued Task Force on Heavy Metals and the Task Force on POPs in TFTEI. The establishment of the former Expert Group on Techno-Economic Issues (EGTEI) was decided by EB, in December 2001, as a follow up of the proposal from the French Ministry for an Ecological Transition and Territories Cohesion.

The Task Force reports to the Working Group on Strategies and Review (WGSR), at the WGSR annual meetings.

TFTEI is led by France and Italy, who share the responsibility of the leadership of the work. Italy took the co-chairmanship in 2006, upon invitation by France.

TFTEI is Co-Chaired by Jean-Guy Bartaire (President of Citepa) and Cecilia Camporeale (ENEA - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development). (Cecilia replaced Tiziano Pignatelli from January 2024. Tiziano Pignatelli co-chaired TFTEI from 2006 to 2023, and still remains available to provide expertise).

Citepa and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) / French-German Institute for Environmental Research (DFIU) are in charge of administrative duties and, most of all, act as Scientific Technical Secretariat of TFTEI. Since 2012, the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt – UBA) also joined TFTEI. The activities are carried out also in cooperation with the experts appointed by the Parties to the Convention and the stakeholders from Industry, pursuing the ultimate objective of the implementation of the Convention, as detailed in the workplan of the Convention.

Most of TFTEI activities are funded by France and Italy. Other Parties to the Convention (e.g. Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the European Commission) and an European industrial association (ESIG) are also financing specific ad hoc works according to the Task Force work plan priorities and organisational activities.

Several CLRTAP Parties have nominated their national experts in TFTEI, such as: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland.

The active involvement of the European Industry, with the aim of establishing a positive and constructive dialogue between industry and administrations of the EU Countries, on economic and technical issues is another priority interest of TFTEI.

Data collected and/or developed by TFTEI are available for use to the Parties to the Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution, and other technical bodies of the Convention, like, i.e. the Centre for Integrated Assessment Modeling (CIAM) operated by IIASA, as TFTEI data may be used as source of input in the GAINS_Europe Model, in the framework of UNECE / LRTAP. The EIPPC Bureau of European Commission´s Joint Research Centre for BREF, is often using the outcome of the work of TFTEI.

TFTEI has established a stable and close collaboration with East Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) and South East Europe (SEE) Countries (Armenia, Azerbadjan, Belarus, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Moldova, Ouzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Ukraine, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro) and the bureaus of best available techniques of Russia and Kazakhstan with the ultimate objective of facilitating the ratification of the LRTAP Protocols through the dissemination of scientific knowledge, methodologies and analysis tools, in those countries. Many experts from EECCA, SEE attend the TFTEI plenary meetings.

Since 2010, in the plenary meetings of the Task Force are hold in English and Russian.

Mandate of TFTEI

According to EB decision 2018/7, the revised mandate of TFTEI is as follows:

The Executive Body,

  1. Recalling its decision 2014/2 on the establishment of the Task Force on Techno-economic Issues;
  2. Recognizing the need to update the mandate of the Task Force to be consistent with the provisions of the amended protocols to the Convention and to take into account the recommendations and strategic priorities set out in the following documents:
    1. Revised Long-term Strategy for the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (ECE/EB.AIR/142/Add.1);
    2. The 2016 scientific assessment of the Convention (See Rob Maas and Peringe Grennfelt, eds., Towards Cleaner Air: Scientific Assessment Report 2016 (Oslo, 2016) and United States Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada, Towards Cleaner Air: Scientific Assessment Report 2016 – North America (2016).; and
    3. Policy response to the 2016 scientific assessment of the Convention (ECE/EB.AIR/WG.5/2017/3, ECE/EB.AIR/WG.5/2017/3/Corr.1 and ECE/EB.AIR/2017/4).
  3. Acknowledging key accomplishments of the Task Force on Techno-economic Issues that include:
    1. Revisions to the technical annexes (with the exception of annex IX) to the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone;
    2. Establishment of a continued and effective collaboration with countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia;
    3. Development of tools for techno-economic analyses in specific sectors.
  4. Welcoming with appreciation the ongoing leadership of France and Italy, with technical support provided by the Interprofessional Technical Centre for Studies on Air Pollution and the French-German Institute for Environmental Research:
    1. Adopts the revised mandate of the Task Force as contained in the annex to this decision, which includes the key objective and functions of the task force to be carried out on an ongoing basis, noting that additional activities and specific tasks and associated deliverables to be carried out in a shorter timeframe, will be included in the biennial workplans for the implementation of the Convention;
    2. Decides that:
      1. The lead country or countries have the responsibility for leading and coordinating the ongoing work and tasks of the Task Force, for organizing its meetings, for communicating with participating experts, for maintaining an up-to-date webpage that includes information on the activities, work, meetings and participants of the Task Force, and for other organizational arrangements in accordance with the biennial workplan. Chairs of the Task Force are appointed by the lead country or countries to carry out these responsibilities;
      2. The Task Force is responsible for carrying out the work assigned to it in the biennial workplans approved by the Executive Body, and reporting thereon, as well as for keeping other relevant bodies apprised of its work;
      3. The Task Force will be comprised of subject matter experts from the Parties to the Convention, acting in their personal capacity;
      4. Meetings will be open to representatives of intergovernmental or accredited non-governmental organizations, researchers, industry associations, and other relevant organizations. Co-Chairs are encouraged to invite individuals with expertise relevant to the work of the Task Force. Meeting reports will reflect the views of all participants to the extent practicable;
      5. In the event that a lead country needs to discontinue its leadership role, it should notify the secretariat, Co-Chairs, and other lead countries as soon as possible, but preferably no later than one year prior to the time it will need to cease its leadership activities. In that event, the withdrawing lead country will make every effort to ensure a smooth transition to the next leadership model, by ensuring that all data and any other information required for the operations of the task force are provided to the appropriate country or person(s).

Regularly, the Work Plan of the subsidiary Bodies such as TFTEI is updated. The last Work Plan was adopted at the last session of the Executive Body in December 2023, for the years 2024-2025.

Links with BREF documents

The work undertaken by EGTEI/TFTEI is complementary to the work carried out by the EIPPC Bureau, located in Seville part of the Circular Economy and Sustainable Industry Unit of Directorate B - Fair and Sustainable Economy, one of six scientific directorates of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). Today, the European IPPC Bureau operates under Article 13(1) of the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU), coordinating the exchange of information that underpins the drawing up, review, and update of BAT reference documents (BREFs), to draft the BAT Reference (BREF) documents.

The BREFs contains the Best Available Techniques (BATs) on different environmental issues covered by the IED (air, water, waste and energy). BATs are described in details and accurately assessed in technical terms by EIPPCB in association with Member States and industry.

Data, as well as complementary information, elaborated by TFTEI can be used in BREFs.

The cochairs may be joined at the following email addresses:

  • Jean-Guy Bartaire: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Cecilia Camporeale: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The technico-scientific secretariat may be joined at the following addresses:

  • Nadine Allemand: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Natalia Sirina-Leboine: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.