Result of Service

The ultimate result of this assignment is to support Contracting Parties in improving their capacities in calculating/estimating and reporting the quantities of pollutants discharged from sectors of activities and categories of substances listed in Annex I of the LBS Protocol.

Work Location

home-based

Expected duration

11 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations system’s designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional levels. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. United Nation’s Environment Ecosystems Division works with international and national partners, providing technical assistance and advisory services for the implementation of environmental policy, and strengthening the environmental management capacity of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. This consultancy assignment is for the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) – Programme for the Assessment and Control of Marine Pollution in the Mediterranean (MED POL), Athens, Greece. The Land Based Sources (LBS) Protocol to the Barcelona Convention was adopted in 1980 and amended in 1996. The amended Protocol entered into force in 2006. As stipulated in Article 13, para 2, the LBS Protocol requires the Contracting Parties to submit reports which shall include inter alia: (i) data resulting from monitoring (Art. 8) and (ii) quantities of pollutants discharged from their territories. For this purpose, the National Baseline Budget of Pollutants (NBB) was agreed by the Contracting Parties as “the monitoring tool” to track progress, on a five-yearly basis, of discharged loads of pollutants reflecting the effectiveness of measures taken to reduce and prevent land-based pollution as detailed in the updated National Action Plans (NAPs) and the legally binding Regional Plans. To achieve this aim, four cycles of NBB reporting have been completed in 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2020. To assist the countries, an updated NBB guideline was developed in 2015. It is presented in Appendix B to the Guidelines for updating the NAPs. As per Decision IG.24/14 on the Programme of Work (PoW) and budget 2020-2021, adopted by COP21 (Napoli, Italy, 2-5 December 2019), MED POL Programme has developed/updated a set of Common Methodologies on Estimation Techniques for the National Baseline Budget (NBB) in 2021. The data collected from the 5th NBB Cycle will be used by the Secretariat and the Contracting Parties to undertake a trend analysis of pollutant loads at country, sub-regional, and regional levels per pollutant, sector, and subsector categories for the development of new NAPs (2025-2035) /Programmes of Measures (PoMs) in addressing hotspots and non-GES areas or areas subject to increasing pressures. Consequently, the “Programme of Work and Budget for 2024-2025,” adopted by COP 23 (Portorož, Slovenia, 5-8 December 2023), mandated the MED POL to enhance the implementation of MED POL reporting tools developed to assess pollution loads from land-based sources and activities (Activity 1.2.4). Given the above, there is a need to recruit a regional consultant to support the Contracting Parties in delivering the 5th cycle of NBB, following the NBB Guidelines. The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of the MED POL Programme Officer (Pollution), under the overall guidance of the MED POL Programme Management Officer. He/She is expected to perform the following tasks: 1. Prepare and submit a detailed work plan for the assignment; 2. Prepare a table of content for the NBB Report including main chapters and annotations; 3. Develop/update a regional data collection template for the inventory of existing/new sources of pollutants per sector of activity (Annex I, LBS) to develop the 5th cycle of NBB; 4. Develop/update dictionaries for sector and subsectors under NBB including national/regional emission factors specific to priority industrial sectors prevailing in the Mediterranean region, in line with PRTR Implementation Guidelines for calculating or estimating pollution loads for the development of the 5th NBB Reporting Cycle; 5. Provide technical support to countries for and the national NBB consultants for: (a) calculating or/and estimating the releases/emissions based on measurement, where appropriate, or/and emission factors, in line with PRTR Implementation Guidelines; (b) populating H2020/NAP indicators factsheets with the collected NBB data; 6. Prepare analyses and assessments of prevailing sectors of activity at the regional level based on preliminary results of the NBB update; 7. Provide substantive inputs (relevant meeting documents and presentations) for the two meetings related to the development of NAPs and NBBs and attend the meetings; 8. Check and compare the submitted NBB data with data provided for the years of 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2020 and prepare indicator-based trend analyses; 9. Conduct Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) on the NBB update submitted by countries and ensure quality assurance; 10. Populate H2020/NAP Indicators following the datasheets. 11. Assess the total loads per sector of activity per pollutant (minimum parameters BOD/COD, TN, TP and heavy metals) and map the priority sectors with the biggest contribution of pollutant releases to the Mediterranean Sea; 12. Analyze NBB/PRTR data submitted by the concerned countries and report findings to the Secretariat; 13. Identify new targets in line with the new legally binding measures promulgated between 2015-2024 to achieve EO/GES at the regional level, for consideration in the new NAPs; 14. Update the Midterm Evaluation Report (UNEP/MED WG.509/9 2015-2020) to track progress on implementation of the NAPs with final recommendations on the new targets for the preparation of new NAPs. 15. Propose and support contracting parties to set new targets based on Tasks 13 and 14. 16. Prepare and submit the final report of deliverables for the consultancy.

Qualifications/special skills

Advanced university degree in environmental management, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, or related discipline is required; A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience with at least 2 years including NBB/PRTR implementation and development of emission factors is required. Knowledge of work with NBB/PRTRs or OECD estimation methodologies is desirable. Previous experience in NBB is desirable.

Languages

• Fluency in oral and written English is required. • Knowledge of French is desirable.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.