The Private Sector’s Environmental Information Duty According to the Aarhus Convention

Abstract

This article focuses on individual information claims based on the Aarhus Convention and its implementing Environmental Information Directive. The author examines whether and - if applicable - which private actors can be qualified as public authority in the sense of the Convention. This problem is not only of academic interest, but vital for the practical use of the right to access environmental information: Only if applicants know who the right addressee for such request is, are they able to submit it. All the more important are the concrete national implementing laws on which applicants can rely. Here, the author presents Germany´s multiple federal- and regional implementation laws as examples. One of the reasons for this choice: Many German citizens are unaware that environmental information requests may also be addressed to certain private entities.