208. The representative of the European Union, as technical sponsor, informed the Committee about the first meeting of the newly formed IWG on RDE, held on 11 and 12 September 2018. Experts from Canada, Japan, United States of America, European Union, OICA, AECC, International Council on Clean Transport (ICCT) and numerous European Union member States participated actively to the event. He noted that the tasks were more demanding than initially expected, and therefore the initial timeline had been reconsidered during the meeting. He announced that the new timeline would be discussed during the next GRPE session in January 2019.

209. He also welcomed the engagement of all parties which have declared interest in the work during the last session of GRPE in June 2018 and encouraged more involvement from China and India.

210. The representative of India reiterated their interest in participating and expressed her willingness to present the ongoing research in India on adapting RDE to the local context once this work had been finalized.