ABSTRACT
THIS CHAPTER ADDRESSES three of the key design features identified in Chapter 1: framing (the overarching concepts that define the issue), participation (the admission of individuals and organizations into an environmental assessment and the definition of when and how they are involved in the process), and capacity (ability of relevant groups to meaningfully engage and participate in an assessment). It examines these factors as a means of understanding the role of “peripheral” European nations—many of them formerly communist “transition” countries—within one of the most important European air pollution activities, the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). Numerous forms of environmental assessment and formal modeling are used within LRTAP bodies. These assessment activities are often credited both by LRTAP analysts and practitioners as having encouraged national policymakers to take stronger actions in pursuit of environmental protection.
