Promoting Public Participation in Climate Policies

This briefing note from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) argues for the integration of procedural rights—specifically access to information, public participation, and access to justice—into climate governance and the implementation of the Paris Agreement. It highlights the roles of the Aarhus Convention and the Escazú Agreement in promoting environmental democracy and provides specific recommendations for the COP-25 agenda to ensure climate policies are inclusive, rights-based, and gender-responsive.

• The Aarhus Convention and the Escazú Agreement provide legal frameworks for environmental democracy, with 71 UNFCCC parties across Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean committed to promoting public access to information, participation, and justice in environmental policies.
• The Escazú Agreement, adopted in March 2018 by 24 UNFCCC Parties from Latin America and the Caribbean, is the first legal instrument to establish a framework for the effective protection of environmental defenders. As of November 2019, it had been signed by 21 countries in the UN-ECLAC region and ratified by six: Bolivia, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay. It requires eleven ratifications to enter into force.
• The Aarhus Convention, which includes 47 UNFCCC Parties from Europe and Central Asia, mandates that Parties promote procedural rights in international environmental negotiations. Recent discussions among Parties in June 2019 highlighted concerns regarding the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) modalities for civil society participation and the treatment of environmental advocates by Poland during COP-24.
• To avoid the failures of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), CIEL recommends that the rules for Article 6 market mechanisms at COP-25 include social and environmental safeguards, meaningful stakeholder consultation (including free, prior, and informed consent for indigenous peoples), and an independent, transparent grievance mechanism for redress.
• The briefing identifies specific opportunities at COP-25 to promote public participation, including the planning of NDCs and Long-Term Strategies in 2020, the review of the Lima Work Programme's Gender Action Plan, and interactive dialogues with states under review, such as Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Ghana, Greece, India, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2019). Promoting Public Participation in Climate Policies. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PromotingParticipation_EntryPoints_COP25_final.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Promoting Public Participation in Climate Policies. 2019. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PromotingParticipation_EntryPoints_COP25_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Promoting Public Participation in Climate Policies |date=November 2019 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PromotingParticipation_EntryPoints_COP25_final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2019promoting, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Promoting Public Participation in Climate Policies}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PromotingParticipation_EntryPoints_COP25_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }