Aarhus Centres support the transition to a green economy

Practitioners and OSCE officers involved in the work of the OSCE-supported Aarhus Centres met in Chisinau, on 29 June 2011, to take part in preparations for next year’s global UN conference on sustainable development, “Rio+20”.

The event was organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities and the OSCE Mission to Moldova, on the sidelines of the fourth meeting of the parties to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Aarhus Convention, all of whom are OSCE participating States.

The participants discussed how Aarhus Centres, which work for public participation in environmental matters, will be able to contribute to the systematic transition to an environmentally responsible, “green” economy.

Addressing an audience of over 100 people, the Environment Minister of Moldova, Gheorghe Şalaru, announced plans to open an Aarhus Centre in Chisinau and an Environmental Information Centre in Bender, in co-operation with the OSCE.

“The transition to a green economy is going to be a complex, long-term process that will require changes to economic and environmental policies, to tax codes, public procurement and to public investment,” explained Desiree Schweitzer, Deputy Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, who chaired the meeting.

“Given the complexity of the task and the high stakes involved, it is all the more important that citizens have a say. Aarhus Centres can support this by, among other things, connecting governments to those parts of civil society that can support the reform processes with their expertise,” she said.

Promoting the participation of civil society in economic and environmental governance is central to the OSCE’s approach to security, which sees environmental co-operation as an important tool for increasing trust in areas of potential conflict.

The project to establish an Aarhus Centre in Chisinau and an Environmental Information Centre in Bender has confidence-building as one of its aims, reinforcing the efforts of the Moldovan-Transdniestrian Joint Working Group on Agriculture and Ecology, one of several joint working groups on confidence-building measures, established by the sides in the Transdniestria conflict.

Several Aarhus Centres are funded by the six-agency Environment and Security (ENVSEC) Initiative, which the OSCE is chairing in 2011.