We held on Sunday 15 November an informal coordinating meeting of all Co-Chairs of the eight Working Groups and the new Task Force on Economic Planning and Envi ronmental Protection. We were joined by several Council members. I had the honou r to chair the meeting due to the absence of Julia Marton-Lefevre.

　　We did not discues the issue of communication between meetings, as we did last y ear, which is to my opinion a sign that we improved in this area. We had a whole morning and afternoon available for discussion, which showed to be very useful for knowing the progress made in the different Working Groups and identifying ar eas of potential collaboration between the Working Groups. There are many issues where this is appropriate. Approaches developed or envirsaged by one group have often potential for others.

　　We identified the following areas needing cooperation between Working Groups:

　　1)The use of financial instruments, such as integratig enhanced environmental ta xation in the national taxation system, is crucial in order

　　(a)to promote the use of sustainable energy sources, improve energy efficiency a nd further the long term strategy of coal based nethane generation;

　　(b)to stimulate TVIE's to implement environmetal policies;

　　(c)to create a better environment for large scale demonstration projects in the energy field, such as planned in the Shanghai area;

　　(d)to promote the marketing of sustainable agriculture products and the use of c leaner production techniques;

　　(e)to finance nature conservation measures in upstream areas by the benefiting d own stream users of river water;

　　(f)to save valuable resources for the economy;

　　(g)to push the transport sector in the direction of low emission solutions;

　　2)The use of CO2-abatement options in national energy production scenarios in or der to identify the needed pace of switching of switching to more sustainable en ergy supply options such as large scale clean coal technologies and small scale power generation by biomass burning.

　　3)The development of requirements for trading clean energy technologies and for all forms of direct foreign investment.

　　4)The interaction between sustainable agriculture on grass lands and the protect ion of biodiversity;

　　5)The establishment of demonstration zones where the link between trade and envi ronment, the promotion of cleaner production and the use of new taxation forms c an be experimentally stimulated; these demonstration zones can act as laboratori es for the nation to introduce and enhance lare scale innovations

　　6)The development of joint projects of the Working Groups in order to profit fro m synergetic effects

　　7)The awareness building by using the demonstration zones and joined projects as vehicles for public interest and centres of innovation.

　　Furthermore it was stressed that the collaboration of the eight Working Groups w ith the Task Force on Economic Planning and Environmental Protection is crucial for the efficiency of the work of the Council. In this context it was recognized that direct participation of the potential donors, such as the World Bank and t he Asian Development Bank, in the activities of the Working Groups is needed to promote the realization of the proposed demonstration projects.

　　As dicussed last year, a good communication of progress through the Internet and other froms of publication between the Working Groups remains important to furt her increase the overall efficiency of the work of the Council.