WRI Stories Feed: The Access Initiative (TAI)

The Open Government Partnership: Will Brazil Promote Green Transparency?

Athena Ballesteros — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:51:40 -0400

This piece was written with Catarina Freitas, a Brazilian legal intern with WRI’s Institutions and Governance Program.

On September 20, eight governments will gather in New York to launch the…

Government Report on Deepwater Horizon Spill Fails to Recognize Its Own Responsibility

Alisa Zomer — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:15:33 -0400

An official report released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE, formerly MMS) and the Coast Guard puts BP, Transocean, and other contractors at…

What Do You Want From Rio+20?

Jacob Werksman — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:38:03 -0400

20 years after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, “Rio+20” will review progress on and reaffirm a global commitment to the policies designed to foster economic growth that is both inclusive and respects…

Are Governments Ready for Rio 2012?

Carole Excell — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:04:42 -0400

Though the next Earth Summit, Rio+20, will take place next June, few governments have started to seriously assess their progress towards achieving the internationally agreed upon sustainable…

New Initiative Uses Environmental Lens to Promote Government Transparency in Key African Countries

Michael Oko — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:44:23 -0400

A new initiative was recently launched to promote government transparency and increase people’s access to information in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa. The Access to Information in Africa: Transparency Models and Lessons Learned (ATI in Africa) project is coordinated by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in partnership with the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) in Ghana, Greenwatch in Uganda and the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC) in South Africa.

“While there have been recent reforms in Africa that have helped usher in multi-party politics and elections, there are still many gaps in accountability mechanisms, such as access to information laws,” said Victor Brobbey, research fellow for Governance and Legal Policy at CDD. “This initiative is designed to advance reforms in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa that will improve the quality of governance and protect people’s rights in these countries.”

Uganda and South Africa have a comprehensive freedom of information act which grants citizens the right of access to information in the custody of public institutions. In Ghana, a freedom of information bill awaits action in the parliament.

This initiative comes on the heels of recent developments to increase people’s access to information in Liberia and Nigeria. On October 4, 2010, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf signed into law the Liberian Freedom of Information Act. The signing made Liberia the first West African country with a comprehensive freedom of information law. More recently, on March 16, 2011, the Nigerian Senate passed the Freedom of Information Bill. This followed the passing of a similar bill by the House of Representatives. A “harmonization conference committee” has been appointed to resolve the differences between the Senate and House bills.

“These new laws are a step forward in these two countries—we are looking forward to similar measures in other African countries,” said Peter Veit, senior associate, WRI, and director of the ATI in Africa project. “Working with local partners on the ground in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa, we will be using an objective, analytical approach to explore new opportunities that lie in environmental and natural resource laws to advance people’s rights of access to information, including government-held information on land, oil, natural gas minerals, forests and water.”

The ATI in Africa project is designed improve access to information in Africa by identifying and testing sectoral approaches for citizens and civil society organizations to access information on the environment and high-value natural resources. Transparency infrastructure that provide citizens with multiple avenues to access government-held information are likely to be more robust and secure, and can better protect the right of access to information.

“The ATI in Africa project’s approach to increase access to information though an environmental lens provides a unique approach to help people and improve governance in Africa,” said Tavinder Nijhawan, Senior Management Officer at the International Development Research Centre. “We are excited to be supporting this project, which should help identify new pathways to engage governments, civil society and individuals on environmental and natural resource issues that affect people’s lives and livelihoods.”

*ATI in Africa *is supported principally with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada as well as Irish Aid, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and World Bank Development Grant Facility. The IDRC grant will support the project for a period of two years, and is part of IDRC’s new portfolio of investments to catalyze more open and inclusive models of development through research and outreach.

# # # #

The World Resources Institute is a global environmental think tank that goes beyond research to put ideas into action (www.wri.org).

Open Democracy Advice Center is a non-profit based in Cape Town. ODAC’s mission is to promote open and transparent democracy; foster a culture of corporate and government accountability; and assist people in South Africa to be able to realize their human rights (http://www.opendemocracy.org.za/).

Greenwatch is an environmental rights advocacy NGO in Uganda that promotes public participation in the sustainable use, management and protection of the environment and natural resources and the enforcement of the Constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment (http://www.greenwatch.or.ug/).

Ghana’s Center for Democratic Development is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit research-based and policy-oriented think tank in Accra, Ghana. CDD’s mission is to promote democracy, good governance and the development of liberal economic environment in Ghana in particular and Africa in general. (http://www.cddghana.org/).

International Development Research Center is a Canadian Crown corporation that works in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies (www.idrc.ca).

EPA Toxics Release Inventory and the “Right to Know”

Janet Ranganathan — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:10:15 -0400

A vision for corporate disclosure and community engagement.

Each year, the Environmental Protection Agency requires certain industries to publicly report toxic chemical and waste releases. Known as the “Toxics Release Inventory Program,” this information aims to provide communities and others with facts about environmental conditions in their areas.

The National Training Conference on the Toxics Release Inventory (November 1-4, 2010) has traditionally focused on interpreting these results. This year, the conference expanded to include more discussions of environmental decision-making in communities and people’s “right to know.”

Janet Ranganathan gave an opening plenary address at the 2010 National Training Conference on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and Environmental Conditions Communities, held this week in Washington D.C. In the speech, she outlined her vision to reinvigorate this great flagship “right to know” program. Below are her remarks:

Opening plenary, 2010 National Training Conference on the Toxics Release Inventory and Environmental Conditions in Communities

Nov 2, Washington D.C.

Issues like environmental justice and community right-to-know stand at the heart of WRI’s governance work, and the work of The Access Initiative. That’s why I am here today. But there is another personal reason why I was eager to accept this speaking invitation. The power of publicly available corporate performance information in a standardized accessible format, as exemplified by TRI, made a huge impression on my early days at WRI. It inspired my work on corporate environmental performance reporting which later evolved into sustainability reporting and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). It was the inspiration behind my efforts to create a standardized approach for measuring and reporting corporate greenhouse gas emissions and the launching of the GHG Protocol.

A Powerful Source of Information

What is it about TRI that makes it so powerful? Let me highlight four features.

The data is public and actively disseminated;
The data is standardized; they can be used to present a coherent picture of trends over time and across geographical areas of emissions by substance at individual facilitues, and also aggregated by company, industry state, and type of substance;
The data can be used by communities and others to track and compare the performance of facilities and companies and improvements in performance by lauding leaders and shaming laggards; and
TRI data track releases of specific materials to air and water as well as transfers in waste, helping companies identify opportunities to prevent pollution by changing technology and practices, thus moving away from cleaning up wastes at the end-of the pipe.

Early experience from TRI showed that data increases the likelihood of negotiations between communities and companies/facilities. Information enables participation. A chemical industry participant in a 1991 conference said¹:

Plant and environmental managers, even operators and plant engineers, now spend more time communicating with the public about emissions and operations, a change from past years when the plant or the technical community was the foremost focus. By hearing about citizens’ concerns firsthand, manufacturers have realized that just making a good product is not enough. Being responsive to citizen concerns and communicating to make the public feel comfortable has changed the way manufacturers do business.

Strengthening the Toxics Release Inventory

Given that TRI is one of the jewels in the EPA’s crown of regulatory tools, it is unfortunate that the last decade has been less ambitious than its first. The time has come to reinvigorate this great flagship “right to know” program. Let me offer three ways to strengthen TRI:

Expand the scope of reporting;
Strengthen data, analysis, synthesis and coordination; and
Deepen the meaning of community right to know.

Expand the scope of reporting

The good thing about TRI is that it shines a lamp on problems - but the downside is that users only focus under the lamps that are lit. There is an urgent need to turn new lamps on. Rather than do this in a piecemeal fashion, EPA should instigate a regular, public systematic review of major polluting industries and new threats. This should be conducted in a transparent manner and be participatory in nature. Let me signal out one candidate for inclusion - fluids used for hydraulic fracturing in shale gas (shale gas reserves in the U.S. are huge and this source of energy could transform the energy landscape in years to come).

Strengthen data quality, analysis, synthesis and coordination

Much can be done here without additional action by Congress. Opportunities for strengthening include revisiting formulas to make sure they reflect actual releases, eliminating paper submissions, and speeding up data release through actions such as the early data release system. The ability to group data at the corporate level (as with the new GHG reporting program), should be made easier to facilitate use by groups like Calvert, who routinely use environmental performance information to assess corporate environmental performance. TRI data should also be combined with other environmental information to provide communities with a more complete picture of their environmental conditions. To this end, the office of information can play an invaluable role helping users to combine data from different sources within EPA and across other agencies e.g., CDC, OSHA, NOAA.

Deepen the meaning of community right to know

This is about increasing the usability of information and the “community’s ability to act”. In Indonesia for example, the Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation, and Rating makes available color-coded ratings on the relative risk each facility poses. In this way, even the rural poor can understand the dangers posed to them by a site.

It is also about proactively identifying high risk communities through an open and collaborative process and then working with them, alongside other relevant agencies, to define specific reduction goals and track progress over time.

And finally, “right to know” has a flip side. There should also be a “duty to inform”. Manufacturers are best placed to identify, assess and publicly report on the risks associated with their products.

A Vision for the Future

Let me share with you a glimpse of what the future might look like if we are successful in driving these changes. Within the next 5-10 years:

Company reports and government data will show that the most toxic substances have been eliminated from the waste stream by developing cost-effective, equally productive, and less toxic alternatives.
EPA offices will be routinely identifying and working with high-risk communities across the country to map and integrate all kinds of data (census, drinking water, air, for example) and using it to improve permitting processes, enforce current laws, and develop and track indicators. The recently developed Environmental Justice Strategic Enforcement Assessment Tool (SEAT) is one important step in this direction, but it needs more resources and a clear link to a decision-making process.
In the absence of regulatory authority, EPA is working with companies to negotiate voluntary public reduction targets to reduce exposure in vulnerable communities. The communities receive regular customized report cards from EPA, allowing them to compare and benchmark the performance of local facilities, products, and workplaces with those in other locations.
EPA is seen as a global leader on right to know and a key innovator in transparency, participation, and accountability.

Impact Across the Globe

Finally, let me mention that the number of TRI-type programs in the world is expected to double in the next decade. Everything that we do in this country to improve information, participation, and justice will be watched around the globe. And that’s why the theme of this conference, “Connecting Communities and Decision Makers with Environmental Information”, is so important.

As the rest of the world seeks to develop sustainably while reducing poverty, how the U.S. includes its marginal, vulnerable communities in decisions about development and environment will have a ripple effect many times over. As you enjoy the exciting speakers at this year’s conference, I hope that you will take the time to reflect and think creatively in the real spirit of community right-to-know. We have come a long way, but there is still much to be done.

Elizabeth A. Fisher, Rohm and Haas Company, “An Industry Perspective on Reporting Releases of Toxic Chemicals”, in Proceedings of International Conference on Reporting Releases of Toxic Chemcals, Nov 13-15, 1991, Vienna, Austria, sponsored by U.S. EPA with OECD, p. 34. ↩

Freedom of Information Laws Spreading Around the World

Lalanath de Silva — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:55:13 -0400

Lalanath de Silva, Director of WRI’s Access Initiative, answers questions on how the “right to know” is evolving in both developed and developing countries.

September 28th is the 8th International Right to Know Day, which focuses attention on issues of government transparency. What do you think when you look back on the “Right to Know” movement in recent years?

This year we have much cause to celebrate, because there has been an explosion of new Freedom of Information Acts (FOIAs) around the world. By the last count, over 80 countries have enacted some form of FOIA, and the vast majority of these have been introduced in the past five or six years. FOIA laws are quickly becoming the norm. Transparency is becoming the global norm. And governments that do not adhere to these principles are having much more trouble justifying their positions. That said, there is still a lot that needs to be done to improve implementation of these laws. Our research has shown that practice lags behind.

What is behind the recent boom in Freedom of Information Acts?

When a government is transparent, there is less room for corruption and more room for accountability. That’s why FOIAs are becoming standard good practice in the international community. International organizations, Multilateral Development Banks, and bilateral donors including USAID are all looking to see whether government transparency is part of the legal system as they decide where to give aid. But this isn’t just about international pressure. There has also been increasing demand from within countries. Civil society and citizens’ groups have really made some impressive progress. As the old saying goes, “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

Why is promoting freedom of information laws important to an environmental organization like WRI?

Making the right environmental choices - as consumers, voters and shareholders – depends on having access to accurate information on the issues that confront us every day, from the quality of the food we eat, to the impacts of corporate supply chains, to the voting records of parliamentarians. Much of this data is held by or can only be forced into the open by government.

Where have you seen progress on Freedom of Information?

Bangladesh and India have made good progress. Chile too has just passed new FOI legislation. Indonesia passed a FOIA in the past few years, and has been making special efforts to be more transparent.

On this issue, the division between developing and developed countries is shrinking.

Mexico has one of the best examples of a well-functioning FOIA. In Mexico, information isn’t just released to the person who requested it. It’s released to everyone. This means that different people do not have to reinvent the wheel each time with different FOIA requests, which saves a lot of time and effort. When it’s released once, it’s public for everyone. IFAI, the Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Informacion, puts information online and also webcasts hearings on information request appeals. The vast majority of requests so far have been for personal information, like birth certificates or pension records. Before the new law, people had trouble accessing this kind of information even about themselves. Interestingly, the new law is also used by government agencies to get information from other government agencies!

What does Freedom of Information mean in more developed countries?

Well, the United Kingdom did not even have a right to information five years ago. But in 2009, because of their new law a young journalist made a request for Members’ of Parliament (MP) expenditure statements. Her request was denied by th Speaker of parliament but she won her appeals including one in the country’s Highest Court – the House of Lords – which ordered the release of the information. When the reports were released, all of this questionable spending with public funds came to light – pool cleanings, replacing chandeliers, etc. There was a huge public uproar, and the Speaker ended up resigning. It rocked the entire government establishment, all as a direct impact of a freedom of information request. And now, people can access their MPs’ expense reports online.

In the United States, the debate has evolved towards a more modern sense of what “Freedom of Information” should mean. Today, citizens have the right to ask the government for information, to pull that information out, but the process can take multiple requests and a lot of time and effort. Much less burdensome would be for the government to push information out. Since President Obama’s Open Government Executive Order, the government has been much more proactive about getting information out to people. More than 20 U.S. agencies have implemented the order, and websites like data.gov make information – about TARP, or the BP Oil Spill, or Congressional fundraising – much more accessible. This is quite new to the U.S.

What makes a good Freedom of Information Law?

The best laws cast the right to information in the widest possible terms with the fewest limits or exceptions. Good laws have enforcement mechanisms so that citizens can make requests and appeal if necessary to an independent body. This is why some FOIAs tend to fall short – in Indonesia for example, many are dissatisfied with the number of exceptions and limits to the rules, and the lack of strong enforcement.

What should be the focus of this movement in the coming year?

We need to keep the momentum going. I would like to see a big push from governments of all countries to establish transparency as the norm and bring it into the international process. President Obama’s global open government initiative announced last Thursday at the UN promises to be a good vehicle for doing exactly that. Some countries, like Sweden and Denmark, have had their FOI laws since the 1700s, but there are leaders in this area among developing countries too, like Mexico, Brazil, and India. On this issue, the division between developing and developed countries is shrinking.

This is the right moment for some cross-north/south leadership that could tip the balance towards transparency even further. That’s what we should be working for this year.

NEWS RELEASE: Environmental Courts Becoming More Popular Worldwide, but Steps Needed for Improvement

Paul Mackie — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:12:34 -0400

The number of specialized courts that resolve environmental issues has grown from only a handful in the 1970s to more than 350 in 41 countries. And while past research has studied a few courts in one or two countries, The Access Initiative of the World Resources Institute (WRI) today releases the first comprehensive global report on the status of these courts.

“The dramatic growth in the number of these courts is the result of growth in the complexity of environmental laws and in public awareness of environmental problems,” said George Pring, who coauthored the report – Greening Justice: Creating and Improving Environmental Courts and Tribunals, being released here at an event at WRI – with his wife Catherine Pring.

World Map of Countries with Environmental Courts and Tribunals

She added, “Considering there has been so much growth in this area, there has not been a lot of cross-border learning going on. We wanted to examine these courts first-hand. And what we discovered is that there are 12 essential elements that go into making environmental courts successful.”

Those “12 essential elements” depend on the legal framework, political system, and goals for each country establishing these courts – which, in the report, are referred to as “environmental courts and tribunals” (ECTs). They include type of forum, legal jurisdiction, ECT decisional levels, geographic area, case volume, standing, costs, access to scientific and technical expertise, availability of alternative dispute resolution expertise, competence of ECT judges and decision-makers, case management, and enforcement tools and remedies.

The report’s findings are the result of site visits by the Prings to 33 ECTs in 21 countries and interviews with 150 ECT-experienced justices and judges, prosecutors, court staff, government officials, private-sector attorneys, nongovernmental organizations, and academics.

Over the last three decades, ECTs in many countries have responded to environmental challenges. Good examples include Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Sweden, and Canada. Major ECT developments are also happening in India, China, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The report includes a full list of the known ECTs worldwide.

“Greening Justice examines plenty of innovative models around the world, but the bottom line is that most citizens still lack adequate access to justice. Further, the research that would help us better understand the effectiveness and promise of these institutions is almost non-existent,” said Lalanath de Silva, director of The Access Initiative at WRI.

With new ECTs being proposed, considered, or developed around the globe, most recently in Chile, Bolivia, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Abu Dhabi, India, and Hawaii, it appears that the increase in ECTs and their ongoing reform and improvement will continue.

MEDIA ADVISORY: A Call for Environmental Courts

Paul Mackie — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:59:45 -0400

WHAT: A Call for Environmental Courts: Judges, Public Confidence, Expertise, and Visibility

WHEN: Monday, April 19th 2010 3 pm to 4:15 pm EST
Cocktail Reception: 4:15 to 5 pm EST

WHERE: World Resources Institute is located at 10 G Street, NE, #800, Washington, DC 20002 (Union Station Metro)

LIVE WEBCAST: http://www.accessinitiative.org/resource/greening-justice
Send questions during Webcast to Mkerdeman@wri.org titled “Greening Justice question”

WHO:

George (Rock) Pring and Catherine (Kitty) Pring, co-authors Greening Justice: Creating and Improving Environmental Courts and Tribunals
Honorable Merideth Wright, Environmental Judge, Vermont Environmental Court
Ritwick Dutta Supreme Court Advocate, India
Jacob Werksman, Director of Institutions and Governance Program, World Resources Institute

RSVP: Online at: http://community.wri.org/NetCommunity/greening-justice
or by responding to this message at pmackie@wri.org

It is often said that justice delayed is justice denied. Environmental courts and tribunals (ECTs) have been proposed as a quick, easy, and cheap solution to the challenges of access to justice in environmental conflicts. But under what conditions do ECTs meet these expectations?

Join us in a lively debate on the creation of and effectiveness of environmental courts and tribunals around the world. Learn why environmental courts may be critical to providing access to environmental justice for all.

This in-depth study was published by The Access Initiative (TAI), the largest civil society network dedicated to ensuring that communities have a voice in decisions concerning their natural resources. TAI partners have worked hard in over 45 countries to identify gaps in laws, institutions, practices, and tools for removing barriers to access to justice in environmental matters.

For nearly a decade, World Resources Institute has been privileged and proud to serve as the Global Secretariat of TAI.

India's Environmental Detectives

Monika Kerdeman — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:58:56 -0400

Lawyers in India advocate for environmental rights, one case at a time.

After six hours in a small basement office here in Delhi, India, I am overwhelmed by the activities of the day. From one minute to the next, it has been unpredictable and unplanned, but surprisingly productive. There is no such thing as a scheduled meeting, and adaptability is key. I’m visiting the office of the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), an Indian advocacy and law group that helps people who have been affected by environmentally harmful development projects. The people at LIFE are more than just lawyers to their clients. They serve as the voices of local people in an often voiceless world.

LIFE’s four full time lawyers (Ritwick Dutta, Rahul Chaudhary, Promod Kumar, and Soumyarup Sahu) try over 70 cases a year with the Indian Supreme Court, the National Environmental Appellant Authority (NEAA) and the Central Empowerment Committee (CEC). Their goal is to keep the government accountable for its environmental decisions, and make sure that existing laws are enforced. This work, and the work of so many Access Initiative partners like them, is a fundamental building block of sustainable development.

LIFE Attorneys Rahul Chaudhary, Promod Kumar, and Ritwick Dutta

LIFE attorneys serve as watchdogs when business and the government fail to follow the best practices mandated by law, such as holding public hearings, consultations and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). They perform quite a bit of detective work, piecing together evidence to ensure laws are being followed. They also help teach civil servants how to implement the laws, and help organizations and people connect with one another on cases taking place all over the country.

In one of their cases, runoff from a cement company had created brackish water in neighboring communities. In another, thermal power plants built without environmental testing had hurt local mango farmers. They take on these cases and others like them for only a nominal fee, if they charge at all.

In one such case I attended with Ritwick Dutta, he was appealing to the courts to enforce a law meant to protect Asiatic lions in the Girnar Sanctuary. Dutta’s client, the Gir Nature Youth Club, had used India’s Right to Information Act to obtain information about the building of an Ashram on land designated for wildlife. Through the petitions process, the club discovered that the Ashram had in fact been encroaching on protected forest lands for years, even after the courts had ordered them to stop.

The impact of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Ashram had taken a huge toll on the land, the wildlife in the area and the local community. Even though the courts had previously decided in favor of the Youth Club to preserve the land, local ministers had overruled them and allowed for the encroachment, undermining the purpose and intent of the protected area.

Ritwick Dutta with clients outside the courthouse

Our session in court that day, like so many others, ended without a final decision. When Ritwick and I returned to the LIFE office, I asked what motivates him to take on cases that can often drag on for years. “It’s interesting and challenging work,” he said. “I want future generations to be able to appreciate how beautiful India truly is. The environment has an inherent right to exist in the form in which it has been created. Since we are not the creator we should not be the destroyer.”

In my job with The Access Initiative (TAI), I have had the pleasure of working with some of the most amazing people around the world. Being based in DC, though, I rarely get to see them in action. Generally, I read their stories on our blog or in reports.

Sitting in LIFE’s office in Delhi, I see the ultimate value of how access laws (access to information, access to justice and public participation) are the keys to empowering people to truly have a more sustainable future.

By putting the pieces of the law puzzle together one case at a time, the lawyers at LIFE help to ensure that the courts take the environment and community rights seriously. Even though they might not win all of their cases, they have at least brought the injustices to the attention of a larger Indian population. They have also given the local people a voice to ensure better standards for the future of their country’s environmental and sustainable development. It’s a process, and a story, that continues to inspire me.

LIFE is one of hundreds of groups in the Access Initiative that are fighting for better governance and environmental protection around the world. For more information about their work and the Access Initiative network, visit http://www.accessinitiative.org.

Browse a slideshow of Monika’s trip on Flickr

View slideshow on Flickr with captions