Trinidad and Tobago has been ranked 26th out of 70 counties with a score of 1.61 in a report from the Environmental Democracy Index (EDI).
The Environmental Democracy Index is the first online public platform that tracks countries' progress in enacting national laws to promote transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in environmental decision making. It also provides some key insights into areas of practice.
While the country did well with the access to information and justice, public participation in decision making process brought the county's ranking down.
The index was done as a commission from the World Resources Institute which is a non-governmental global research organisation which seeks to create equity and prosperity through sustainable natural resource management.
Environmental democracy is rooted in the idea that meaningful public participation is critical to ensure that land and natural resource decisions adequately and equitably address citizens' interests.
At its core, environmental democracy involves three mutually reinforcing rights: the right to freely access information on environmental quality and problems; the right to participate meaningfully in decision-making; the right to seek enforcement of environmental laws or compensation for harm.
Trinidad and Tobago's results and recommendations
The index criteria assessed access to information, public participation and access to justice. It ranked access to information as 2.00, public participation as 0.71 and access to justice as 2.13 giving an overall rating of 1.61.
According to the report, Trinidad and Tobago scored well on the Transparency and Justice pillars, but poorly on the Participation pillar.
The Freedom of Information Act provides the public with the right to access environmental information on request, and the law requires some agencies to collect and disclose environmental information to the public.
However, the government is not obligated to disclose timely information to the public during environmental emergencies.
As for the Participation pillar, the public is granted the opportunity to comment on legally binding rules that affect the environment, but the government is not obligated to proactively seek public input.
For the Justice pillar, the public can appeal decisions to deny information requests, and can challenge decisions by the government or private sector that impact the environment. However, there are no legal mechanisms to remove gender-based barriers to justice.
Air and drinking water quality data for the capital Port-of-Spain are also not made publicly available in practice.
The report recommended that Trinidad and Tobago could expand legal rights to environmental democracy by building on its strengths and addressing these areas for improvement.
About the study
The index evaluates 70 countries, across 75 comprehensive legal indicators and 24 limited indicators of practice, based on objective and internationally recognised standards established by the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Bali Guidelines.
It draws on national laws and practices that were assessed and scored by more than 140 lawyers around the world.
The EDI legal indicators assess laws, constitutions, regulations and other legally binding, enforceable rules at the national level.
Country assessments were conducted in 2014 and will be updated every two years. The index was developed by the World Resources Institute in collaboration with partners from The Access Initiative around the world.
Highest and lowest results
Lithuania ranked first in the world with a rating of 2.42. The index states that in Lithuania, the public has the right to access environmental information on request, and a wide range of environmental information must be made proactively available.
Regarding the Participation pillar, government agencies must provide the public with opportunities to participate at an early stage. They are also required to proactively seek input from the public.
Haiti was ranked last in the index with a overall rating of 0.51. Regarding the Transparency pillar, there is no established right to access environmental information, although there are a few key ministries that are required to proactively disclose environmental health information.
As for the Participation pillar, the public can participate in a few decisions that relate to the environment, but there is no legal requirement that opportunities for participation must occur at an early stage.
To read the full report, click here:http://www.environmentaldemocracyindex.org/rank-countries#all