Luxembourg became the 1st party to ratify the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers to the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention). The Protocol, which seeks to enhance public access to information through the establishment of coherent, nationwide pollutant registers, was signed by 36 governments and the European Community, in Kiev, Ukraine, in May 2003.
PRTRs are inventories of pollution from industrial sites and other sources. They are believed to exert a significant downward pressure on levels of pollution released to the environment.
The instrument of ratification was deposited with UN Secretary-General on 7 February 2006, three days after the publication of an EU regulation aimed at applying the provisions of the Protocol throughout the EU member States. The first reporting year for the European PRTR will be 2007.
For further information, please contact Michael Stanley-Jones, Environmental Information Management Officer, Aarhus Convention Secretariat, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe: [email protected].
