Review & Outlook: 1st IWM NAMA Steering Committee Meeting Successfully Held in Beijing

Since its official kick-off in January 2018, the IWM NAMA project has been running for over one year. These 365+ days were crucial for IWM NAMA from the project internal setup and organization of its first events to the evolvement of policies at a national level in China and further development of the waste sector as a “field of action”. What has been achieved? What will be put in the project working plan for 2019? In order to answer these questions comprehensively, the first IWM NAMA Steering Committee meeting was organized on March 28. The event brought together around 40 delegates, representing the project partners and key actors – MoHURD, embassies and missions of NAMA Facility funding countries (UK, Denmark, Germany) and the EU, CAUES and five project demonstration municipalities (Lanzhou, Xi’an, Taian, Bengbu, Suzhou).

The Steering Committee meeting was welcomed and opened by Mr. Wang Wei, Deputy Director General of the Department of Standards and Norms (MoHURD), Mr. Neal Carlin, Head of Climate Change & Environment (British Embassy Beijing), Dr. Alexander Fischer, Head of Cluster for Climate, Environment, Natural Resources (GIZ) and Mr. Liu Jinghao, Secretary General (CAUES). In their opening remarks, while assessing the project from various perspectives, they unanimously stated the prospect of China IWM NAMA in bringing positive change to China’s waste sector and transforming it towards a more sustainable and low-carbon future.

The meeting was followed by an overview of the project, its implementation progress and current status provided by Mr. Qian Mingyu, project director of IWM NAMA. Based on the specific needs of each of the demonstration municipalities defined during the baseline study, Mr. Qian also introduced the project focus areas and its working plan for 2019.

In the subsequent group discussion, the representatives of five demonstration municipalities briefly introduced the status of the project implementation and raised their ideas and wishes for the year 2019. The delegates of MoHURD also gave their suggestions for the future project development.

To conclude, the IWM NAMA will continuously support China in its transition towards integrated low-carbon waste management. While emphasizing the value added of the sector and its role in tackling climate change through transparent and systematic quantification of the GHG emission reductions, the project will also strengthen its focus on the following issues: a) technical solutions for the utilization of organic waste; b) assessment of organic waste treatment technologies in China and other countries; c) enhancement of public education and awareness-raising activities to promote low-carbon waste management; d) further improvement of the KPI system for municipal solid waste (MSW) and monitoring methodologies.

Mr.Wang Wei, Deputy Director General of Department of Standards and Norms, MoHURD giving opening speech

Mr. Neal Carlin, Head of Climate Change & Environment (British Embassy Beijing) at the meeting

Dr. Alexander Fischer, Head of Cluster for Climate, Environment, Natural Resources (GIZ) at the meeting

Mr. Ralf Becker, First Secretary, Environment, Climate and Urbanisation, Economic Department of the German Embassy

Mr. Qian Mingyu, IWM NAMA project director, introducing project implementation in 2018

Participants of the 1st IWM NAMA Steering Committee Meeting

Representatives from the demonstration municipalities

Representatives of demonstration municipalities at the meeting