The past few decades have seen a remarkable expansion of environmental democracy, commonly understood as the public’s rights to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice regarding the environment.
More than 100 countries have passed access to information laws — up to 30 since 2007. Nearly every country now requires environmental impact assessments in some form, which often contain public participation provisions. And more than 55 countries have established innovative environmental tribunals in the past decade. These laws and initiatives give citizens a voice in the environmental decisions that directly impact them, and allow them to hold governments and businesses accountable for malfeasance.
Still, there’s a long way left to go to truly protect citizens and the planet from environmental harm. In many countries, environmental democracy laws are weak, lack supporting institutions, have not been adequately put to use by the public, or remain ineffective due to entrenched opposition from vested interests. And while case studies reveal an implementation gap between law and practice, it’s yet to be systematically measured through environmental democracy indicators and metrics.
About the author
Jesse Worker
Jesse Worker is an associate with the Access Initiative at the World Resources Institute. He manages the Environmental Democracy Index, a new effort launching in early 2015 that will benchmark procedural rights of environmental democracy around the world. He also leads the Access Initiative's work on climate change adaptation and collaborates with WRI's Water Program to integrate water governance metrics and improve usability of water risk measurement tools for civil society.
