CGE – the last participation of the Slovak and European representatives at the 12th meeting of the CGE expert group took place on September 17-18 at the headquarters of the UNFCCC Secretariat in Bonn. CGE Group is still celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation, and therefore the celebratory events will also be held at the 29th Climate Conference in Baku, which will take place in November. Due to the continuing complicated international situation, it was not possible to approve the nominations to fill the empty positions of experts, mainly from developed countries, and therefore several members were not presented on the September meeting. Developed countries were represented only by our colleague Janka Szemesová and a colleague from Japan. In addition, our colleague's second two-year term ends at the end of this year, and therefore her participation in the 12th meeting was the last. Negotiations on new rules (Terms of References) for the admission of CGE members will begin at the meeting of the UNFCCC executive bodies in Bonn in June 2025 and, after their approval at COP30 in Brazil, could enter into force from 2026. The new rules should facilitate the nominations of new experts and members of the CGE so that it is possible to ensure adequate representation of developed countries.
REFUREC - regular workshop was held for the 29th time and this time three representatives of Slovakia visited Brighton in autumn from 17 to 19 September. In total, the regulatory panel was attended by representatives from 24 countries, a representative from the European Commission and representatives from the UK Department for Transport. During three days of packed lectures, parallel group workshops and discussions, it was possible to gain and exchange experiences with other Member States in the field of sustainable fuels. Main topics were for example "Control and supervision of certification bodies", "Current status of RED III implementation in the transport sector" or an online meeting with a member of the EC and a member of the European Database (UDB) team, during which they answered questions to be prepared by each Member State. During the meeting, the EC also presented the next steps related to the launch of the UDB and the legislation in question, with most of the questions again left incompletely answered.