The UNECE – EEA joint workshop “Open Data for the Environment” was held in Geneva on 2 October 2019 back-to-back with the sixth meeting of the Aarhus Convention Task Force on Access to Information (3-4 October 2019). The event was organised under the auspices of the Task Force pursuant to decision VI/1
of the Convention’s Meeting of the Parties on promoting effective access to information (ENG, FRE, RUS).

The workshop aimed to:

(a) Strengthen the capacity of authorities to implement the information pillar of the Aarhus Convention with the focus on effective provision of information by taking the advantage of new and emerging digital technologies and on enabling the public to reuse it;

(b) Promote synergy by linking relevant initiatives of governments, partner organizations and other stakeholders to widen and improve sharing and public accessibility of environmental information, including through electronic information tools and e-government, open government data, the Shared Environmental Information System in the pan-European region and other similar initiatives;

(c) Discuss the way forward for modernising environmental information systems and raising the profile of environmental information through its accessibility, sharing and wider dissemination, as well as harnessing additional economic, social and environmental benefits;

(d) Support countries’ efforts in measuring and monitoring environment-related Sustainable Development Goals and targets, including target 16.10 on ensuring public access to information in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.

The workshop brought together the representatives of governments and stakeholders interested to share case studies, challenges and good practices in open data for the environment.

The workshop was supported by the EU-funded project of the European Environment Agency on further implementation of the Shared Environment Information System principles in the six Eastern Partnership countries (ENI SEIS II East project). The workshop also took stock of the project outputs of the first meeting on open data and e-government for the environment (Kyiv, 5-6 March 2019), national round tables in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, open data and e-government good practices for fostering environmental information sharing and dissemination, open data maturity reports, and roadmaps for these countries to improve the dissemination and sharing of environmental data through e-governance and open data initiatives.