Please follow this link to download the presentation as a pdf. An up to date version of the Activities and Tasks etc, can be accessed at this page.

To register for the free INMS workshop, please visit this link

The agenda for this meeting can be accessed here.

If you have any queries please contact inms@ceh.ac.uk.

Sunday 4th December (09:00 to 13:00)

Place: Melbourne Cricket Club, Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Same Venue as INI 2016 conference.

The “Towards INMS” proposal for a full-sized GEF grant has now developed and is undergoing its final
review and endorsement stages. In principle, this means that the project may be ready to start towards the
end of 2016. This will be a four year endeavour that among other things:

1. Delivers a global assessment of nitrogen threats and benefits and opportunities for improving nitrogen management, including case studies for each of the main world regions.
2. A forward look of what will happen if the nitrogen problem is ignored.
3. Guidance on joining up mitigation and adaptation options and strategies, linked to circular economy and green economy thinking.
4. A platform for better cooperation across nitrogen science and policy domains, helping to overcome the barriers.

The workshop will bring existing INMS partners and others interested in joining the process together to update on current development of the project. If the project has already started by this point, then it will serve to support the work on the project  inception phase. This will include mapping out responsibilities and contributions in more detail in order to refine the Towards INMS work plan

Sessions:

1) Review of INMS progress and current status and goals

2) Refining contributions to the INMS process and timing of activities

3) (Provisionally, based on INMS start) discussion on the work plan and inception report, by the ‘Towards INMS’ General Assembly

4) Next steps in Towards INMS engagement with the Nitrogen Policy Arena

Please register your interest in attending the INMS workshop by completing the online registration form on
the INI2016 website www.ini2016.com/registration.

The INMS project is currently in its PPG phase and is due to start in Autumn 2016.

What is the project?

'Targeted Research for improving understanding of the Global Nitrogen Cycle towards the establishment of an International Nitrogen Management System (INMS)' is a project proposal to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund. INMS is a science-policy support process that brings together people, information, approaches, indicators, cost-benefit analysis, regional demonstration, etc as a basis to support governments and others through international nitrogen policy processes. The big message is to count the co-benefits of a joined-up nitrogen approach. By addressing better management across the nitrogen cycle, we can contribute to improving Economy-Wide Nitrogen Use Efficiency, while reducing surplus that would often be wasted as pollution.

How is it being administered?

The project is funded through the International Waters Focal Area of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It is executed through the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and its Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), based in Edinburgh, on behalf of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI).

Links to background project documents, can be found under the 'documents' tab, further recent documents of relevance to Nitrogen issues and the INMS project:

Our Nutrient World - This report draws attention to the multiple benefits and threats of human nutrient use. It highlights how nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers are estimated to feed half the human population alive today, and how they will remain critical in the future, especially given increasing population and potential bioenergy needs. Yet high nutrient use has created a web of pollution affecting the environment and human health, while insufficient access to nutrients has led to soil degradation, causing food insecurity and exacerbating loss of natural ecosystems. The report shows how these problems cross all global change challenges, threatening water, air and soil quality, climate balance, stratospheric ozone and biodiversity.

Nitrogen on the Table - Report ‘N on the Table: The influence of food choices on nitrogen emissions and the European environment’ which was launched at the European Parliament in January 2016.

We have made progress with the INMS project paperwork and are now able to share draft documents with you for review and validation. However, due to tight deadlines, we need all comments by/on 12th April. All partners to the project should have been sent a link to download the relevant files, however if you have not received a link and would like to view the documents and make comments, please contact us as at inms@ceh.ac.uk and we will share the link with you.

We welcome both comments to improve the documents AND general comments of support to indicate your agreement. You are invited to send us comments on any/all of the posted documents and you are encouraged to do this on a document by document basis, to allow us to process them as soon as possible.

Please provide comments using the following webform [NOW CLOSED].

You will notice in the Component Annexes, that we have provided provisional nominations for Component, Activity and Task Leader roles. These are persons who have expertise in the relevant areas and have helped to develop the concepts in the document drafts. However, due to the rules of pre-selection, the confirmation of these roles will not occur until the Inception meeting, at which point the General Assembly will be asked to endorse the nominated Task, Activity and Component Leaders.  We welcome all your comments including where you think we have the balance right and appropriate expertise as well as your suggestions if you think improvements can be made.

PDF copy

PDF copy

Introductory presentations:

• BG1. Prioritising Nitrogen Threats and Benefits: Which issues need to be linked when developing integrated modelling capability? Hans van Grinsven
• BG2. Policy Linkages: What are the priority measures needed for better nitrogen management that should be included in models? Clare Howard
• BG3. Issue/Compartmental Linkages: How should different Compartments of the nitrogen cycle be linked when formulating nitrogen integrated assessment models? Wim de Vries

Feedback from working groups:

• WG1. Prioritising Nitrogen Threats and Benefits
• WG2. Policy Linkages
• WG3. Issue/Compartmental Linkages

• Provide an update on the INMS project
• Refine the common approach of the INMS demonstration regions.
• Discuss financing options and co-financing approaches
• Explore relationships and integration within each regional demonstration region.

This meeting was held after the end of the 2nd BASF ‘Fireside Chat’ Nitrogen workshop, benefiting from that other meeting as an opportunity for INMS key regional demonstration partners to meet. This also allowed the INMS Demonstration Region Meeting participants to build on the proceeding meeting, discussing emerging issues in nitrogen management and how they differ regionally.

Minutes from the INMS Regional Demnonstration meeting can be found here.

Outcomes from the BASF workshop also led to a paper 'Developing a global perspective on improving agricultural nitrogen use.', which was published in the Journal of Environmental Development. The paper can be downloaded here.

Agenda

Monday 27^th April

Session 1: Welcome and views from multi-lateral agreements

Chair: Claudia Cordovil, University of Lisbon. Meeting host and co-chair of the UNECE Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN)

Following a brief introduction to their framework, each of the following speakers were asked to outline their priorities for how Towards INMS could support their policy process, and how their policy process could engage with Towards INMS.

Session 2: Sharing the INMS vision and baseline activities

Session 3: Reflections and Engagement – Statements from Country Stakeholders

Chair: Wilfried Winiwarter, Director of the European Centre of INI.

Session 4: Reflections and Engagement – IGOs, Business and NGOs

Chair: Jean Ometto, INI Regional Director for Latin America

Session 5: Science Examples and Nitrogen Dating

Chair: Mark Sutton, INI: In this session speakers are asked to reflect on an example area of nitrogen science and show how it could contribute to the work of Towards INMS.

Structured Discussion: The Nitrogen Dating Game.

Clare Howard, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Introduction to the Nitrogen Dating Game: Organizing INMS to support global and regional nitrogen policy (pdf)

Breakout into the Nitrogen Dating Game: (rapporteurs for each component in parenthesis)

• Policies and Analysis of Nitrogen Strategies (PANS): (Till Spranger)
• Fluxes and Levels Assessment Group (FLAG): (Will Brownlie)
• Sustainability and Threats Assessment Group (STAG): (Cargele Masso)
• Budgets and Indicators Development (BID): (Albert Bleeker)
• Costs and Benefits Assessment Group (CBAG): (Baojing Gu)
• Societal & Technical Options Responses Group (STORG): (Clare Howard)

Tuesday 28^th April

Session 6: Regional Demonstration and other aspects of the project.

Chair: Cargele Masso: INI Regional Centre Director for Africa

General Discussion, clarifying the role of the regional demonstrations Document

Parallel Working Groups

Feedback from Parallel Working Groups and discussion (moving toward agreement on the selection of demonstration areas)

General discussion: priorities and challenges for the regional demos

Session 7: Summing up INMS Approach and relationship with global and regional inter-governmental processes.

Chair: Anna Engleryd, Chair of LRTAP Convention

General discussion on direction setting, priority needs and approaches

Relationship between eventual INMS and inter-governmental processes.

Session 8: Developing INMS Procedures

General Discussion and agreements

1. Proposal for Agreement on Towards INMS mission statement
2. Proposal for Agreement on Selection of Regional Demonstration Areas
3. Proposal for Agreement on Governance and Management Structures

Following this Session 8 the following extra presentations were made, as time was available.

Sara Walker WRI. WRI and Towards inms first plenary meeting (pdf)

Ying Zhang. School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University. Wetlands into Considered as both Sources and Sinks (pdf)

Gulay Besirili. Ataturk Central Horticultural Research Institute. Minsitry of food, agriculture and livestock (pdf)

Theodore Karyotis. Institute for Soil Mapping and Classification. Rational Nitrogen Fertilization Plans for selected crops in dry and wet regions of Turkey (pdf)

Continuation on General Discussion and Agreements

Sharing information on the future calendar (2015-2019)

Reviewing action points and any other business

Close of meeting