Executive Director, distinguished guests, ladies and
gentlemen
This special discussion during a very full meeting of
the UNEP Governing Council and Global
Ministerial Environment Forum is a measure of the importance we all attach to
environmental information for decision making. I am honoured to have
been invited by Dr. Klaus Topfer to speak to you on my practical experiences in this area.
The environment belongs to everyone and is the
responsibility of everyone. Information
is one of our most fundamental resources for environmental protection. It is the basis for awareness, education,
understanding, empowerment and participation. It influences the values,
attitudes and behaviours necessary to solve environmental problems and sustain
natural resources. Information on
the environment should have the widest
possible availability.
Aarhus
Convention
The 1990s will be remembered for intense activity at
international level in the area of environmental information. Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development set a high aspiration for informed citizen
participation in environmental issues.
Good foundations are now in place to make this aspiration a global
reality in the present decade. In
1998, the UNECE agreed the Aarhus Convention
on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to
Justice on Environmental Matters. We
now have a set of common regional practical provisions enabling every person to
assert his or her right to live in a good environment, and observe his or her
duty to protect and improve that environment.
These are provisions with potential for global application.
I support and encourage initiatives by UNEP through its
regional offices to gain support for implementation of the Aarhus provisions on
as wide a basis as possible.
Ireland has signed the Aarhus Convention. We are preparing for ratification in
cooperation with our European Community partners. It gave me great pleasure, therefore, to host the UNEP Infoterra
2000 Global Conference on Access to Environmental Information in Dublin last
September. The Conference adopted the
Dublin Declaration with a welcome focus on the practical aspects of making
information more readily available to the public, decisionmakers and other
stakeholders. It includes
·
the launching of revitalised national networks
of users and suppliers of information;
·
the identification of
national portal Websites to support the proposed global environmental portal
UNEP. Net and
·
the establishment of more
traditional public access centres.
Ireland’s
experience in giving practical effect to Principle 10 of Agenda 21
Over the past decade Ireland has consciously expanded
both statutory and voluntary access to information. Indeed, for nearly four decades, full public access and
participation have been features of the decisionmaking processes for
development control.
The Irish planning system continues to be one of the
most open in Europe. At each level,
whether it is the formulation of a plan for an entire city or an application to
build just one house, public notice must be given and any individual may submit
views or objections on the proposal.
There is also widespread consultation with local interest groups to
ensure a co-operative and integrated approach to local land use planning.
During an Irish Presidency of the European Community
in 1990, a Community Directive established the general principle that
information relating to the environment must be made available on request to
any person without that person having to prove an interest.
In 1993, Ireland established a new Environmental
Protection Agency with many information obligations, including the
establishment of an environmental quality database with public access, and
public access to all EPA environmental monitoring.
In 1997 a comprehensive Freedom of Information Act
widened the right of access to all information held by public authorities in
the interests of transparency and good governance.
Ireland has a high quality environment. We have placed a high emphasis on
maintaining that quality while developing to meet our economic and social
needs. To manage growth in a way
that respects the environment and uses
it in a sustainable way, citizens,
communities and corporations must also play their part.
As a new and voluntary initiative, the Government
established ENFO – Ireland’s free high street environmental information service
- in 1990. ENFO was designed to be a
source of easily accessible, appealing and authoritative information to bring
home to adults and children the concept of individual responsibility for
protection of the environment. The new
service immediately set about tailoring its information and the means of access
to meet the different levels of demand.
Initially, the most pressing public need was for low
cost simple fact sheets on topical environmental issues, national or
international, which were receiving
increasing attention in the media. A
query answering service and video viewing and lending scheme quickly
followed. These measures were
supplemented by exhibitions on environmental themes. Because of the centre’s high street location these are very
accessible to both the casual visitor and organised groups. From the start, ENFO exhibitions have been
designed for ease of travel and accessibility to voluntary community and
environmental groups countrywide. They
are made available through the public
library service and other public or private exhibition facilities.
These low cost hard copies of literature and services continue
to be the most important means for access by schools, community groups and the
general public, despite the subsequent
development of more modern electronic facilities.
More sophisticated facilities and services were
required by non-governmental organisations campaigning on behalf of the
environment, industry and the commercial sector, third level students and
researchers, consultants and decisionmakers in public and the private
sector. A comprehensively stocked
reference library was built up. This
now includes hard copies of UNEP and the European Environment Agency
publications, 300,000 technical reports of the US Environmental Protection
Agency and other indexes to technical databases.
Proposed developments with potentially significant
impacts on the environment undergo a statutory environmental impact
assessment. The access which ENFO
provides to micro fiche and hard copies of the more than 1,300 Environmental
Impact Statements prepared in Ireland is highly prized. It is widely agreed that this ENFO service
has a positive effect on the quality of the statements and promotes best
practice.
ENFO continues to adapt and target its public
information services to key decision makers in consultation and partnership
with users, including NGOs and local authorities. Over the past year, an increasing emphasis has also been placed
on sustainable lifestyle materials.
User-friendly basic information guides for shoppers, householders and
motorists have been published. These
complement a sustained national environment awareness campaign to encourage
individuals to make simple lifestyle choices for the environment.
The success of ENFO in facilitating public access to
environmental information is largely due to
·
closely matching services to the various levels of need
required;
·
the high street location of
its drop in and exhibition centre;
·
the development of
partnership arrangements with the voluntary and sectoral interests; and
·
the provision of its services
without charge.
ENFO has acted as the National Focal Point for UNEP
Infoterra and has already put in place the much strengthened consortium
structures envisaged by the Dublin Declaration
Assistance to
developing countries
Shortly after its establishment, ENFO participated in
the Southern African Sub-Regional Infoterra Network SASIN. Under the partnership which included the US
EPA and UNEP, the SASIN website hosted by ENFO was developed. Through our bilateral aid programme we were
able to assist the construction of an Environmental Awareness Centre at
Masianokeng High School in Lesotho in 1994.
This acts as a Regional Training Centre, providing staff training on
database development and input.
More recently Ireland announced specific target dates
for increasing its Official Development Aid to meet the UN target of 0.7% of
GNP on ODA. This commitment involves a
fourfold increase of 1999 levels of ODA by 2007. We are committed to an interim target of 0.45% of GNP by the end
of 2002. We are now reviewing the
development assistance programme to see where best these additional resources may be allocated, and we attach
importance to projects in the
environmental protection and sustainable development areas.
Since the
Dublin Conference last September, my Department and ENFO have been working in
close association with officials of UNEP Infoterra and relevant authorities in
a number of selected African countries to develop practical proposals for
building on the work carried out during the 1990s. Sympathetic consideration is
now being given to the allocation of additional funds for this purpose from
this year on. These funds would be in
addition to the extra funding Ireland is providing to UNEP in 2001.
In
conclusion, we think that ENFO is a successful model for easy public access to
reliable and objective environmental information in a range of formats. We would very much like, through an
appropriate funding mechanism and in consultation with UNEP, to assist the
replication of that model in developing countries. They have a priceless and
irreplaceable environmental heritage. We hope that into the future, ENFO
expertise and systems will continue to be available to them. In that way, in partnership, we can
contribute to expanding the range and quality of global environmental
information, and assist in making it available to those who most need it and
can use it to best effect.
Thank you.