2025 Aarhus Meeting of the Parties: what to expect?

By ClientEarth environmental democracy lawyer Sebastian Bechtel 

Large UN conferences, such as the climate and biodiversity COPs (Conference of the Parties), garner substantial media coverage as they tackle the pressing environmental challenges of our time. But much less under the public eye, countries will gather for the quadrennial Aarhus Convention Meeting of the Parties (MOP) later this year (17-25 November in Geneva). And even though media coverage will presumably be more limited, we can expect our fair share of political drama. So what will be the hot topics this year?

Overburdened Compliance Committee

The Aarhus Convention’s Compliance Committee has so far been arguably the most effective compliance mechanism of any existing international environmental agreement. Since its establishment just over 20 years ago, its 9 independent members have adopted more than 90 findings based on communications from the public; with several more currently being finalised in the run-up to the MOP. These findings have driven significant law change, including expanding the ability of environmental NGOs to challenge acts of EU institutions, EU bodies and German public authorities, enhancing the public participation in the Czech environmental impact assessment system, and establishing the UK cost protection regime.

However, Committee members engage in the work on a voluntary basis and are assisted by only two full time staff members within the UNECE secretariat. With the communication mechanism becoming known and used, the time taken to resolve communications has become longer and longer. The ones currently being resolved were filed between 2015 and 2017. Therefore, the question of additional funding for the secretariat to support this work will be one of the hot topics of the MOP.

Decisions on non-compliance by Parties with the Convention

Findings and recommendations of the Compliance Committee can either be accepted by the Parties right away or they are submitted to the MOP for endorsement through a decision on (non-)compliance of a Party with the Convention. It is established that these decisions are always endorsed unanimously, as are all decisions at the MOP. This so-called “spirit of consensus” lies at the heart of the effective functioning of the compliance mechanism and of all other processes of the Convention. It ensures equal treatment and prevents that a majority of countries (such as the 27 EU Member States) would impose their will on others.

As ClientEarth reported following the last MOP in 2021, that “spirit of consensus” has suffered several hits during the conference. Belarus resisted the draft decision directive to it and so finally a vote was called. This resulted in Belarus leaving the Convention in 2022, provoking a strong reaction from the Convention Bureau. The EU had insisted to postpone the findings concerning its non-compliance, which related to access to justice in relation to the Commission’s state aid decision, thus seeking special treatment a second time.

With this context, it is ever more important that all compliance decisions are endorsed at the upcoming MOP. The EU is currently rushing to finally implement the state-aid related findings (case ACCC/C/2015/128) and it will be crucial that rules are adopted that fully address the Committee’s recommendations.

Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders

During the last Aarhus MOP in 2021, the Parties agreed to establish a new “rapid response mechanism” to deal with cases of harassment, persecution and penalisation of environmental defenders (as prohibited by Art. 3(8) Aarhus Convention). This mechanism had been a key ask of civil society organisations, to give a possibility to address situations which could not be addressed through the slower Compliance Committee process.

At an extraordinary MOP in 2022, the first Rapporteur, Michel Forst, was elected. Having previously been UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Michel Forst brought a wealth of experience to this new role. Over this first mandate, he was extremely active, processing complaints, organising consultations and producing outputs, such as his recent Position Paper and draft Guidelines (currently under consultation). With threats against environmental defenders and the curtailing of civic space becoming more frequent, the MOP will be an important moment to take stock of the first mandate and to ensure the mechanism’s adequate functioning for the next 4 years.

Conclusion

As all its predecessors, the 2025 Aarhus MOP promises to be filled by intense negotiations. Most importantly, however, is maintaining the spirit of consensus, as it keeps this important international process alive. Beyond that, we need to see political support, both for the Special Rapporteur and in the form of additional contributions from Parties to ensure that the existing processes receive the necessary support.

The Aarhus Convention has been a highly successful agreement so far in progressing environmental democracy in all of its Parties. With an increasing number of threats to the rule-based international order and lived democracy, it is arguably more important than ever.

This article is part of the Access to Justice EARL project.