Right to Know- Helping to promote Clean Production

Right to Know - Helping to promote Clean Production
Martin Hojsik
Toxics Water Campaign Coordinator
Greenpeace International

Rio Declaration
Principle 10
Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities
in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided.

Aarhus Convention
Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters
Established under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
43 Parties plus European Union
Open to accession by any member of the UN

Aarhus Convention – Environmental Democracy
Objective – To contribute to the protection of the right to live in an environment adequate to health and well-being creates procedural rights
Three pillars – (1) right to information, (2) participation and (3)access to justice in environmental matters

3 Pillars of Environmental Democracy
Access to Information
Right to access environmental information held by public authorities
Public Participation
Right to participate in decisions on activities which may have a significant effect on the environment
Access to Justice
Access to justice in cases of activities which may have a significant effect on the environment and decisions of authorities related to such cases or access to information cases

Access to Information
Right to Access – right to access environmental information held by public authorities; and active obligation to collect and disseminate environmental information
Type of Information – pollution data, environmental health information, permits granted or policies
Time limit – one month for delivering of the information

From access to dissemination
Right to Access information requires authorities to respond to public information requests
Pollutant Release and Transfer Register provides public with directly accessible data without need contact authorities
Providing in easier access to data
Improving transparency

Pollutant Release and Transfer Register
A catalogue or register of potentially harmful pollutant releases or transfers to the environment
Information on releases to air, water and soil as well as transfers of pollutants/waste to treatment and disposal sites – but not as ingredients in products
Information should be available via direct electronic access, such as an open website

OECD minimum characteristics of PRTR
Reporting on individual chemicals
by individual industrial facilities
on all releases and transfers
to all environmental media (air, water, land)
periodically
with consistently structured data
entered into a computer database, and
actively disseminated to the public
with limited data withheld as trade secrets,
with the aim to improve environmental quality and promote pollution prevention.

PRTR - Helping to reduce pollution
Increasing transparency and accountability
By requiring that data be made public, PRTRs and TRIs make businesses better accountable for the pollution they cause.
Providing data for state programs
E.g. US States use the TRI data to support their pollution prevention programs and toxic use reduction plans, with clear goals and timelines.
Evaluating progress
E.g. the US federal government uses the data to track trends, to assess the effectiveness of their regulations.

PRTR - Helping to reduce pollution
Informing investors
Investment analysts use TRI data to provide recommendations to clients seeking to make environmentally sound investments. Insurance companies look to TRI data as one indication of potential environmental liabilities.
Helping public control
NGOs use the data to raise the capacity of people to understand the types of hazardous chemicals being discharged into their communities.

PRTRs Around the World
US – Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
Canada – National Pollutant Release Inventory
Europe – European Pollutant Emission Register
Australia – National Pollutant Inventory
Mexico – Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes
Chile - Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes

Time to start in Argentina
Riachuelo basin is the most relevant place to start
PRTR could help to
Provide tool for monitoring development of discharges into the basin
Support transparency and public oversight of the clean up
Create competition between the industry actors to improve performance
Riachuelo needs PRTR

Gracias Contact Martin Hojsik tel: +66 89 927 3236 tel: +421 905 313 395 [email_address]

Right to Know- Helping to promote Clean Production

by Greenpeace Argentina on Oct 05, 2009

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