ABSTRACT
Aa A21 major groups – A term used in the text of Agenda 21 indicating nine
sectors of society fundamental to achieving sustainable development: children and youth, indigenous people, women, NGOs, local authorities, workers and trade unions, scientific and technological community, farmers, and business and industry. (UN)
A posteriori – Relating to or involving inductive reasoning from particular facts or effects to a general principle; derived from or requiring evidence for its validation or support; empirical; open to revision. (WR)
A précis – An abstract, abridgement, condensation, digest, synopsis or a summary of the essential thought of a longer piece. (HH)
A priori – Relating to or involving deductive reasoning from a general principle to the expected facts or effects; known to be true independently of or in advance of experience of the subject matter, requiring no evidence for its validation or support. (WR)
Aårhus Convention – The Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters of the UNECE entered into force on 30 October 2001. Its purpose is to link environmental rights to human rights through stakeholder involvement, and it establishes that the achievement of sustainable development is through government accountability linked to environmental protection. (UNECE)
Aårhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) – A protocol to the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution
designed to reduce air pollution from 16 persistent organic chemicals including DDT, aldrin, dieldrin, PCB and the industrial byproducts, dioxins and furans. Thirty-three governments signed the protocol in 1998 but it has not yet entered into force. (UNECE)
Abatement – The reduction of the degree or intensity of pollutants or emissions. (EM)
Absorptive capacity – The capacity of an environment to assimilate waste products from an economic activity.
