The 1998 Aarhus Convention constitutes a landmark international agreement to promote public participation, not only domestically, but also at the international level. In 2005, its parties adopted specific guidelines on the promotion of its principles in international forums and established institutional arrangements to promote the implementation of this instrument. This article provides an assessment of the work undertaken under the Aarhus Convention in the past 10 years in this respect, discussing the roles played by three main categories of actors: civil society organizations, national governments and international bureaucracies. The review of the promotion of the Aarhus principles in the international climate regime supports this analysis. This case study highlights that stakeholders and the secretariats established under the Aarhus Convention and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have played primarily a cognitive role as they worked to increase awareness of the parties on participation issues in the climate regime. To implement the Aarhus Convention in the context of the climate negotiations, the parties tend to favour domestic solutions (such as the inclusion of civil society representatives in governmental delegations) rather than reflect the Aarhus principles in their negotiating positions.
