TAI Blog

New US Rule-Making Procedures Turn Participation Upside-Down

Joseph Foti — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:10:18 -0400

Public participation in the U.S is changing. New procedures for regulatory changes are a positive step for public participation. This article in the Federal Times makes it clear that the entire process for crafting regulations is changing from a “notice and comment” model to a “co-creation” model.

TAI in Turkey: An Intro Workshop Held on Tuesday

Csaba — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:36:23 -0400

On the 9th of June, Tuesday, an introductory workshop on TAI and PP10 was held in Istanbul by Csaba Kiss, Core Team member for Europe for a number of interested Turkish NGOs. The meeting was organized by EMBARQ-Istanbul - WRI Centre for Sustainable Transport, and made possible by the generous offer of the Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences. Funding for the meeting was secured by WRI within the DGF grant (year 2) of the World Bank.

Are Access Rights the Next Victim of the Global Recession?

Andrew Rizzardi — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:34:24 -0400

Environmental access rights could be threatened by government stimulus packages intended to counter the effects of the global recession. Several countries worldwide have proposed stimulus legislation that includes rollbacks of environmental impact assessments (EIAs).

The information made available by EIAs is fundamental to informing the public of development issues and promoting participation. A reduction to EIA procedures will inherently result in a decline in transparency and threaten public involvement in development projects.

Indian Court reminds Environment Tribunal about its duty to the future generation

Ritwick — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:53:53 -0400

Two significant ruling by the Delhi High Court in the month of April and May, 2009 delivered by Justice Ravindra Bhat has greatly helped the cause of access to Justice in India. These two judgments along with the Judgment on the functioning of the NEAA delivered by Justice A. P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar has laid down a framework for access rights for far as challenging environmental clearances are concerned.

Background: