Abstract

That the Aarhus Convention was inspired by a grand vision for democratic advancement was clear from its inception. In his forward to the Convention’s Implementation Guide, Kofi Annan described it as ‘the most ambitious venture in environmental democracy undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations’, a prophecy which remains central to the Convention’s lore. However, at the time of its signing, Parties to the Convention were dealing with a very particular question – how to bring former soviet states into the democratic fold of Europe, and for some the Aarhus Convention provided a gentle vehicle to do this and its potential to address the blind spots of more established democracies was overlooked. Now the political context is quite different, and many Parties to the Convention are being forced into greater introspection about the vitality of their own democratic systems. Whilst there are multitude pressures prompting this reflection – the climate crisis stands out as a driver of democratic disruption. A critical question, therefore, is whether the Aarhus vision of environmental democracy has something to contribute to broader questions about how democracy operates in troubled times. In this paper, I suggest that it does. Whilst the depth and breadth of the Aarhus visions means that there are many avenues to explore in answering this question, I will focus on two related issues – the role of the Aarhus Convention in facilitating climate litigation, and the new and developing role of Aarhus in supporting environmental defenders. In unpacking how the Convention contributes to these two areas, I emphasise the relatively underexplored climate justice potential of its democratic vision.