To assist countries in analyzing their air pollutant emission data and understanding how to develop their emission scenarios, UNECE organized a subregional workshop for EECCA countries together with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

The workshop agenda included hands-on training sessions on the GAINS (Greenhouse Gas – Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies) model – a model that was used to support the negotiations for the revision of the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone (Gothenburg Protocol) under the Convention. The model can help assess emission reduction potentials in different countries and regions. It can simulate costs, health and ecosystems benefits of different emission control measures, analyze cost-effectiveness of measures to achieve user-defined policy targets and assess costs and benefits to maximize the benefits of policy interventions.

The five-day in-depth training helped participants in understanding how to set national emission reduction targets for 2020 and beyond, which is a necessary step in the ratification process of the Gothenburg Protocol.

Ten experts from EECCA countries (including six female) participated in the workshop. The workshop was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety by the Advisory Assistance Programme for environmental protection in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia and other countries neighbouring the European Union (AAP). It was supervised by the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA).