International ideal and local practice – access to environmental information and local government in Poland

Abstract

AbstractAccess to information plays an important part in modern governance and is vital for sustainability, as envisaged in Agenda 21, the Aarhus Convention and EU environmental law. Given a shortage of relevant studies dedicated to CEE countries, this paper presents empirical evidence regarding application of the international principle of access to information at the very bottom of administrative hierarchy in one of the largest CEE states. Taking into account the great variety of Polish municipalities with respect to their demographic, economic, environmental and urban characteristics, the paper examines practical access to very basic environmental information. The paper scrutinizes one particular type of information while referring to different modes of accessibility. Survey and interview based data shows to what extent the principle is already adopted at the local level, to what extent e‐government is utilized to secure the provision of information and whether an urban–rural cleavage occurs in this respect. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.