The Environmental Democracy Index European Launch
9 June 2015, Geneva, Switzerland - Access to information, public participation and access to justice are determinant to achieve sustainable development. To advance measuring progress in countries around the world towards strengthening access rights, The Access Initiative and the World Resources Institute launched the first Environmental Democracy Index (EDI), based on an internationally recognized set of guidelines, on 20 May 2015.
The Index offers new insights into the state of environmental democracy around the world and is the first to measure how well countries’ national laws protect environmental democracy rights. According to the developers, it is a tool that could support global policies to strengthen environmental democracy.
UNITAR and the Geneva Environment Network Secretariat organized an event presenting this new tool to the European audience and discussed it with developers and key stakeholders, on Tuesday 9 June, at the International Environment House.
The index currently evaluates 70 countries, across 75 legal indicators, based on objective and internationally recognized standards established by the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Bali Guidelines. EDI also includes a supplemental set of 24 limited practice indicators that provide insight on a country's performance in implementation. The national laws and practices were assessed and scored by more than 140 lawyers around the world. Country assessments were conducted in 2014 and will be updated every two years. All scores are validated in a comprehensive review process in which both governments and civil society get an opportunity to express their opinion and suggest adjustments. The discussion proved to be lively with a number of contested points. One contentious issue raised was that formal compliance with procedural rules in environmental matters may nonetheless produce negative outcomes, highlighting the importance of qualitative assessments of legal and legislative procedures. Such qualitative assessments exist in the EDI; however, they do not currently form part of the quantitative country scores. UNEP Regional Director, Jan Dusik, mentioned in particular the qualitative importance of the index, and possibilities of linking it with UNEP Live. There is potential for capacity building between the countries searching for best practices for each guideline. With regard to other indices, EDI can be an important complementary tool to be linked with other work and is not to be conceived of as a substitute to other indices, e.g. the Human Development Index (HDI). In the next edition of EDI, a 100+ countries shall be included, also to achieve greater representation of certain regions, especially Africa.
More information on the index is available on the EDI website: www.environmentaldemocracyindex.org
AGENDA
Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Achim HALPAAP, Senior Manager, Environment and Green Development, UNITAR (moderator)
Jan DUSIK, Director, UNEP Regional Office for Europe
Presentation of the EDI
Lalanath DE SILVA, Director, Environmental Democracy Practice, WRI
Jesse WORKER, Manager, Environmental Democracy Index Project, WRI
Q&A
An Interactive Panel Discussion
Jan DUSIK, Director, UNEP Regional Office for Europe
Maria Cristina CÁRDENAS FISCHER, Chief, Technical Assist. Branch, Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm Conventions Secretariat
Biruté ABRAITIENE, Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Lithuania to the United Nations Office in Geneva
Yves LADOR, Permanent Representative, Earthjustice
Marc HUFTY, Professor, Graduate Institute
Q&A
