State’s Compliance with Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the Role of Exchange of Information in It

Compliance of states with multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) is the objective of these agreements. To this end, a number of measures have to be taken which mainly are called “implementation” as ex-ante as well as “enforcement” as ex-poste initiatives and measures. Such initiatives and measures, prevent member-states from non-compliance, and, in case of breaching environmental obligations, make these defaulting member-states fulfill such obligations and bringing them back into the state of compliance with such multilateral environmental agreements. Exchange of information is an important factor for “implementation” and “enforcement” of environmental obligations. “Non-compliance procedures”, “capacity-building” “Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR)”, and “Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC)” are instances of “implementation” and ex-ante actions in which exchange of information plays an important role. Also, exchange of information facilitates identifying violators of environmental obligations and makes it possible to start proceedings against such offenders, as an instance of “enforcement” and ex-poste measure.