Environmental Reporting and Information Sources

• Author: Jamie Benidickson
• Pages: 423-432

423

CHAPTER 19

ENVIRONMENTAL

REPORTING AND

INFORMATION SOURCES

A. INTRODUCTION

Under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Europe an agree-

ment was reached at Aarhus, Denmark, in 1998 concerning access to

information, public participation in deci sion making, and access to jus-

tice in environmental matters. In this context, the Aarhus Convention

formally def‌ined “environmental information” as any information, in

whatever form, relating to:

(a) The state of elements of the environment, such as air and atmos-

phere, water, soil, landscape, and natural sites, biological divers-

ity and its components, inc luding genetically modif‌ied organ isms,

and the interaction among t hese elements;

(b) Factors such a s substances, energy, noise, and radiation, a nd activ-

ities or measures, including administrative measures, environ-

mental agreements, policies, legislation, plans, and programmes,

affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment

within the scope of subparagraph (a) above, and cost-benef‌it and

other economic analyses and assumptions used i n environmental

decision-making;

(c) The state of human health and safety, conditions of human life,

cultural sites and built structures, inasmuch as they are or may

be affected by the state of the elements of the environment or,