The overall objective of the EAP Task Force Environmental Finance Programme is to assist the EECCA and East Asian countries in improving the capacity of public sector institutions and municipalities managing public environmental expenditure and in attracting additional finance for environment from foreign and private sources.

In the past, the EAP Task Force developed a number of guidelines and tools which include, among others, a methodology for collecting data on environmental expenditure and for long-term financial planning in the environmental sector. Key principles and good practices for managing public environmental expenditure in transition economies were also elaborated and disseminated throughout EECCA. In the area of municipal finance, a toolkit for multi-year investment planning and budgeting was prepared and tested in selected municipalities in Russia and Ukraine.

The 2004-2006 Work Programme on Environmental Finance has been developed to reflect the new developments and challenges in the EECCA region. Its main building blocks include:

- Environmental Expenditure Data

- Environmental Financing Strategies

- Public Environmental Expenditures Management

- Local Credit Markets

- Local Investment Capacity

- Debt-for-Environment Swaps

Since 1995, OECD and EECCA experts have maintained a technical network of the EECCA environmental finance stakeholders to oversee the implementation of the EAP Task Force work programme on environmental finance. More information on the Network objectives and results from its previous annual meetings can be found here.

All tools, publications and various documentation developed under the previous 2001-2003 work programme can be downloaded from the EAP Task Force projects database at http://oecd.hybrid.pl