THIRTY EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ADOPT PLAN TO MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION MORE WIDELY ACCESSIBLE
Press Release
UNEP/31
THIRTY EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ADOPT PLAN TO MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION MORE WIDELY ACCESSIBLE
19980702 AARHUS/NAIROBI, 29 June (UNEP) -- Thirty Pan-European countries of the global environmental information exchange network operated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) -- known as INFOTERRA -- met in Aarhus, Denmark, from 23 to 25 June 1998 to discuss the practical implementation of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. The Convention was adopted last week at a meeting held under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).Responding to the call by UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer for a strategic plan of action to make public access to environmental information a reality in the Pan-European region, the meeting identified the following four priority actions to make the Aarhus Convention work:
(a) Promotion of the Convention;
(b) Improving the availability of environmental information;
(c) Improving access to available environmental information;
(d) Strengthening the link between the information access and public participation pillars of the Convention.
Chairing the meeting, Noel Hughes of the Environmental Information Service operated by the Irish Government, said the first task was to promote the Convention.
"If people are not aware of their rights under the Convention or do not know how, or where, to access the information they need then the Convention will not be visible in each of the signatory countries and therefore will not work well", Mr. Hughes added. More countries needed to establish publicly accessible environmental information centres, particularly in the central and eastern European and newly-independent States.
Jeremy Wates, representing the European Environmental Bureau, emphasized the important role of INFOTERRA in making more environmental information available electronically via the Internet/World Wide Web, so as to reach a mass audience with minimal investment of effort.
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