Session proper starting on Wednesday, 15 January from 2.30 PM. The deadline for the submission of official working documents is 21 October 2019.
30. The representative from EC introduced GRPE-80-29 detailing the latest activities from IWG on RDE. She invited all stakeholders to consult GRPE-80-30 and GRPE-80-31 and to comment the draft UN GTR and UN Regulation on RDE. The representative from India requested more details on the timeline for the UN GTR and UN Regulation. The representative from EC commented that both UN GTR and UN Regulation are expected to be proposed simultaneously at the next session of GRPE in June 2020. The representative from Australia requested clarifications about the arrangements for obtaining an approval under the proposed UN Regulation, that contained one test with two methods. He asked if both methods would need to be passed successfully to get an approval. The representative from EC answered that indeed both methods would need to be passed and was happy to have found a common denominator with all stakeholders involved for most of the provisions in the UN Regulation.
31. The secretariat noted that some elements in the draft UN GTR are left to contracting parties to decide. He asked whether those elements are expected to be harmonized and to be tackled in the phase 2 activities of the UN GTR development. The representative from EC clarified that such elements might be removed in the next phase of the UN GTR development to streamline the next amendment of the UN GTR. The representative from OICA expressed his appreciation to the level of harmonization achieved in such a tight time frame.
32. The Chair expressed his gratitude and appreciation to all the efforts made and reckoned the challenges to reach full harmonization given the complexity of the emission legislation files.
33. GRPE noted the request for a meeting room for half a day during the GRPE week in June 2020.