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UNITED NATIONS

Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has called upon various nations to implement practical measures to facilitate greater access to environmental information by the public. He emphasised the need to deliver timely, reliable, targeted and relevant information to policy-makers and the public so as to activate and stimulate the creative energies and support the broad range of civil society.

UNEP, in co-operation with the Danish ministry of environment and energy, recently hosted a three-day meeting titled "Facilitating Public Access to Environmental Information in Europe and the CIS Region," in Aarhus, Denmark. Toepfer emphasised the need for the "provision of an appropriate level of information ensuring that those empowered to make choices can do so on an informed basis". "UNEP, in partnership with governments and other organisations such as the European Environment Agency and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, can play a major role in this process," he said.

He called on nations to establish a formal information service on environmental matters similar to the Irish government's Environmental Information Service. Toepfer stressed that such a service is essential for the effective implementation of the information pillar of the Aarhus Convention. The UNEP executive director urged the participants to "formulate a clear strategy and develop a plan of action to make public access to environmental information a reality in all countries in the pan-European region."

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