Geneva,
The Parties to the Espoo Convention, meeting yesterday in Geneva, decided to caution Ukraine for its non-compliance with its obligations under the Convention with regard to the controversial Bystroe Canal Project. At the same time, the Parties to the Convention’s Protocol their commitment to the Protocol as a tool for integrating environmental and health considerations into planning and policymaking. In addition, in a panel discussion on nuclear energy-related projects, the role of Espoo Convention in ensuring transparency and adequate public involvement in decision-making in this contentious sector was highlighted.
For the first time under the Espoo Convention (Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context) a caution was issued to a Party due to its failure to comply with its international obligations. At the previous session of the Meeting of the Parties, in 2008, Ukraine was declared in non-compliance with the Convention but avoided a caution by committing to reconsider its decision to fully implement the project and by stating that it would not commence work on the second phase of the Bystroe Canal Project until its obligations under the Espoo Convention were satisfied. Though it attempted to fulfil some of those commitments, Ukraine did continue with the implementation of the project so breaching its obligations under international environmental law. The decision taken by the meeting requests the Government of Ukraine to report by the end of each year on steps taken to bring into full compliance the Bystroe Canal Project in the delta of the River Danube.

The declaration adopted in the Geneva meeting highlighted the possible role of strategic environmental assessment in the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. In his opening speech of the Meeting, UNECE Executive Secretary Ján Kubiš highlighted the importance of declaration in greening the economy: “Strategic environmental assessment is a unique and important instrument for planning and policymaking related to greening the economy, and you rightly wish to draw the attention of the Ministers meeting in Astana for the ‘Environment for Europe’ Conference to this.”
The concerns raised by the recent Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster in Japan could be clearly sensed in the panel discussion on transboundary impacts of nuclear energy-related projects. Participants highlighted the importance of assessing environmental impacts of the full life cycle of planned nuclear energy projects including the assessment of severe accidents and of alternative proposals. The moderator, Georges Kremlis from the Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission, stressed in his conclusions the need to build confidence and social acceptance with regard to planned nuclear energy projects. He emphasized the role of Espoo Convention in this respect in ensuring transparency and public participation in the process. Mr. Kubiš later noted that “the Convention allows States to inform and possibly reassure their neighbours, to act transparently and to allow those neighbours to comment on planned power plants and storage sites that cause them concern”.