Background

The Environmental Information Bill is an example of a legislative initiative designed to advance public participation in sustainable development. The Environmental Information Bill is an initiative of Citizens for the Environment in the Galilee, a non-profit local organization. The bill was drafted by students at the Environmental Justice Clinic at the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University. MK Dr. Lea Ness presented the bill before the Israeli Knesset in 2003. The objective of the bill is to require all government agencies to make available to the public through the internet site of the Ministry of the Environment all environmental data and information that government agencies and bodies themselves produce. The need for this bill was due to the inability to receive information collectively regarding a specific concern or geographic area, without relying on significant resources, ample time and most importantly – in depth understanding of the issue at hand. All these are obstructions before an average citizen when requesting information from government authorities. To a large extent the bill was drafted in response to the difficulties in obtaining information under the Israeli Freedom of Information Law.

Environmental information is often the basis for decision making and planning procedures by local and regional authorities. Making that information readily available to the public is extremely important if meaningful public participation is to take place. Informed citizens are active citizens, who could assist authorities to carry out their role of environmental scrutiny and supervision, pollution prevention and the elimination of hazards. It is therefore important that essential information be readily available and accessible to the public. These include: emission levels of pollutants into the environment, water quality, data related to sewerage, radiation levels and more.

Prior to 1998, when the Israeli Freedom of Information Law was passed, most authorities considered that the information they generated as their own possession, rather than public property to which they serve as trustees. The average citizen could usually get the information requested, only after presenting a personal or private interest that they might have had in requiring the information. Court rulings actually supported the delivery of information by the authorities, however, in the absence of specific guidance by the legislator, the rulings remained inconsistent. Considering freedom of information is an important public value, a wide coalition of organizations was set up to promote the legislation of the Freedom of Information Law in Israel.

The Freedom of Information Law creates a focal point in each ministry, to coordinate requests received in accordance with the law. After some seven years of experience with the legislation, a number of problems have surfaced:

• The attitude of many government agencies is not one that information is public property and that the authorities hold it in trust. As a result, information requests are too readily denied or even ignored by the authorities. [1]
• The fee charges can be prohibitive and the process is time consuming, with no system in place for urgent requests.
• There is often the difficulty in identifying the responsible authority. This necessitates separate requests to each possible authority, paying multiple fees and awaiting different lengths of time for each to respond. For example responsibility for water issues in Israel is under the jurisdiction of nine separate authorities: the Water Commission, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, Mekorot the national water company and local authorities.
• The Freedom of Information Law stipulates that the authority is not obligated to process the information according to the needs of the petitioner, but merely to present it as it has been produced. For environmental information, often the unprocessed data as available by the authority is not understood by a citizen with no specific professional training on the issue.
• Due to all difficulties mentioned above and a lack of publicity as to the existence of the Freedom of Information Law, the number of requests submitted to each governmental authority numbers at less then one hundred requests every year.

A Recommended Solution: The Environmental Information Law

The bill was drafted to address many of the abovementioned problems as related to environmental information, by placing a duty of publishing environmental information on the authorities. The proposal is different from the Freedom of Information Law, on several parameters. First, it requires the publication of information to the public, rather than delivering it in response to an individual request; the information to be published is information pertaining environmental issues, rather than all of the information available to the authorities; the information provided by the numerous authorities will be collected by the Ministry of the Environment, to enhance the availability of the information, rather than needing to approach each and every one of the Freedom of Information focal points in each of the authorities. The information is to be published on the Internet. The bill determines that any information pertinent to the environment is to be published, and stipulates:

• Information pertinent to the environment with relevance to public health
• Information on environmental standards
• Data of the release and emissions of pollutants to the environment
• Findings of inspections, sampling, monitoring of polluting substances
• Inventory lists of hazardous substances
• Readings of all types of radiation
• Noise levels and odor pollution
• Environmental surveys and studies
• Environmental impact assessments
• Relevant environmental information resulting from other legislation, such as business permits, water and sewage, hazardous substances, plant protection law, and planning and construction regulations.

Authorities obligated to provide information for publication include government ministries, the Knesset, local authorities, corporations controlled by local authorities, corporations established by law, state owned companies, any other public entity reviewed by the State Comptroller’s Office. Information must be submitted for publication within a short time after its production, to give the public the most current information.

MK Dr. Lea Ness advanced the law proposed in 2003, however, due to objections of various ministries and authorities, its preliminary reading by the Knesset was delayed until July 2004. In the process of negotiation before the Knesset vote, it was agreed that the bill would be an additional clause to the existing Freedom of Information Law. The Ministry of the Environment originally opposed the bill on grounds of workload and expense.[2] However, with the recent appointment of a new Minister of the Environment, MK Shalom Simhon, the ministry has decided to support the spirit of the bill, yet it asserts certain reservations as to the type of information to be published.[3]

The NGOs are concerned that the reservations will narrow the type of information provided, and not respond satisfactorily to the demands of the environmental movement. The Ministry is taking the position that only the emission values will be published, exclusive of their reference values (not to mention the comprehensive detailed list of the original draft). The implication is that a layperson might not be able to interpret the data presented, making the information provided less relevant.

Recommendation for Action

The Environmental Information Bill came from within the environmental movement in Israel and since it was devised we have been involved in a profound debate regarding the manner of implementing it.[4] We congratulate the Minister’s resolution to support and promote this legislation but will not support the watering down of the legislation. We recommend the establishment of a joint team to cooperate in formulating the regulations to enable the legislation to be passed by the end of 2005. The Ministry of the Environment must promote the law in a way that will make available to the public full, detailed, reliable and coherent information of the state of the environment in Israel, so that transparency and accessibility of environmental information will foster greater public participation in environmental issues in general.