15 June 2009 | 1 reply
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practice FR: Environmental information portal to be launched in June 2009
FR: Environmental information portal to be launched in June 2009
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17 April 2009
Last Edited Date
17 April 2009
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France
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ePractice Editorial Team (EUROPEAN DYNAMICS SA) | Belgium
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A new web portal providing the French public with a single entry point to the environmental information held by the public bodies and available on the Internet, is planned to be inaugurated in June 2009.
Both the French Environment Charter (officially part of the Constitution) and the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the so-called Aarhus Convention) compel the public bodies to grant everyone access to any piece of environmental information in their possession.
The working group "Building an ecological democracy" of the "Environment Round Tables "Grenelle Environnement" - a national conference, held in 2007, which brought together the Government, local authorities, trade unions, business and ONG sectors to agree on concrete measures for tackling the environmental issue for the next five years - however highlighted the difficulties inherent to the access to environmental information for all.
The commitment no. 141 of the "Grenelle Environnement" hence provides for the "establishment of a portal for the dissemination of such environmental data". The operational Committee "environmental information and monitoring" (known as "Comop 21"), tasked with the follow-up of this commitment, proposed the creation of a web portal which would allow the Internet users to access, either by theme or by territory, and in as few clicks as possible, a document or data stored in any of the partners' websites.
Internet users currently have to search for environmental information in a dispersed manner, one website after the other. With public websites and portals multiplying nowadays, the added value of such initiative is considered unquestionable.
The setting-up of the portal notably relies on actions carried out within the framework of the portal of the "Système d'Information sur la Nature et les Paysages" (SINP - Information System on Nature and Landscapes). Yet, the scope of the future environmental information portal is diverse: only the data held by the public authorities and available on the Internet, in any document format (reports, video, etc), will be subject to dissemination.
The SINP project aims, among other goals, to structure knowledge on both biodiversity and landscapes' diversity so as to formulate and assess public policies, place sufficient information at the disposal of citizens in order to allow for public debate and enable the fulfilment of the country's reporting obligations in line with its European and international commitments.
Further information:Â
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environmental democracy
Public participation in environmental decision making has become in the last decades the goal of different recommendations and declarations at the international level, elaborated by the European Union.
The Ã…rhus Convention entitles the public - individuals and environmental organisations - to participate in environmental decision-making. This
means that public authorities have to inform them in time of relevant proposals, so that they can submit their comments. These comments need to be taken into consideration. The authorities are also required to inform the public of their final decisions and the underlying reasons.
Under the Ã…rhus Convention, public authorities are obliged to organize, make accessible and disseminate the environmental information in their possession. This means they are obliged to keep and share the environmental information relevant to their functions, such as the quality of water, air and the atmosphere, land and biological diversity; energy, noise, development plans and policies; and the effects of these on human health, safety and the environment. This information has to be made accessible and disseminated, for example by putting it on the Internet, informing the media or using other channels of communication.
Environmental democracy is subject of the Aarhus Convention that goes to the heart of the relationship between people and governments. The Convention is not only an environmental agreement; it is also a Convention about government accountability, transparency and responsiveness.
Local aspect of environmental democracy
Aarhus Convention looks like a helpful one but I believe the direct and indirect impact of the convention, like the previous ones, to the local environmental policies at the national and regional level, too. Â