What would the average individual reply to being asked: Do you have a right to the environment?

The plain, and perhaps ugly, truth is that, putting it in simplistic terms – no we do not. Search through local, regional and international legislation and only in a few places will you find a substantive legal right to the environment for individuals to have and enforce.

One wonders: what in the world could little old me do in the face of glaring environmental abuses if I have no right to my environment? Well, for starters, be aware! Given the lack of substantive environmental rights, that is, rights to water, soil and so forth, we are particularly fortunate to be nationals of a country which is party to a convention which provides us with procedural environmental rights instead.

This is the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.

This convention provides for access and participation in environmental matters, and it is one of the first moves within Europe and on a more international level which has translated problematic environmental issues into rights enforceable at the most basic and useful level: the individual.

The convention not only caters for the duty of public authorities to heed requests for information but also imposes a duty on such authorities to provide for the collection, updating and public dissemination of environmental information even in the absence of such requests.

“Environmental information” is defined broadly to cover various elements including air, water, and soil. The right of access extends to “any person” without the need to prove an interest in the information being requested.

As subjects of the convention we have extensive rights to obtain and access information relating to the most basic elements of our environment as well as to participate in specific projects and policies affecting it.

These procedural environmental rights are translated into our laws through various legal notices which provide us with a network of subsidiary environmental legislation.

We need only look at the Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment regulations to begin to realise how we can become more involved in ensuring that our environment is safeguarded.

Even more extensive are the individual procedural rights provided in our Plans and Programmes Participation regulations and Freedom of Access to Information on the Environment regulations, according to which one may request environmental information without even having to state one’s interest in it.

Yet, notwithstanding the extensive way in which we are entitled to obtain information and participate in shaping our environment, it seems that our typically Mediterranean ‘nosy parker’ natures have not yet spurred us to become involved in environmental matters.

The phrase ‘knowledge is power’ has particular meaning in this context and we are given ample room to obtain this knowledge and put it to good use.

The beauty of these laws is that if our procedural environmental rights are breached in some way and redress for such breach is not forthcoming locally, we are entitled, in a highly accessible and feasible manner, to publicise this breach internationally by using the Aarhus Convention’s communication procedure.

At this point many would think: big deal! Well, the big deal here is that individual rights to act at such international levels are rare in similar conventions where often such a right is reserved to the states-parties themselves or to the convention’s institutional bodies. With the Aarhus Convention such a right is placed neatly and squarely within our grasp in a very cost-effective manner.

No legal counsel is necessary at any point throughout the process such that a well-read individual may easily formulate his or her own communication, gratis, and follow it through to the end stages without having to pay handsomely for legal advice. Financial aid to attend Aarhus Committee discussions regarding the communication is also an attractive bonus.

It is essential to remember however that a communication serves to draw attention to a state’s shortcomings in complying with the convention for these same shortcomings to be remedied – it is not a means of obtaining compensation.

However, when one considers alternative options, particularly more costly ones such as judicial means of obtaining compensation and the likeliness of obtaining it, these procedural rights and the Aarhus communication procedure are indeed rough diamonds for individuals genuinely concerned with safeguarding the environment.

Until purely substantive environmental rights come into place, if ever, we have been blessed with a procedural alternative – let those of us interested in making a difference to our environment not waste it.

If you are genuinely concerned, stop complaining and start acting: you have the forum.

Dr Caruana graduated LL.M. in International Law from Edinburgh University and LL.D. from the University of Malta.This article is based on studies she undertook for her LL.M. degree following the award of a STEPS scholarship part-financed by the EU European Social Fund Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013.