Dawn of a new information frontier? Artificial intelligence, the Aarhus Convention, and the right of access to environmental information

In contemporary environmental governance and democracy, environmental information acts as the foundation for effective decision-making. It is on this basis that the public's right of access to environmental information is guaranteed, with the Aarhus Convention acting as the chief normative framework upon which this right is implemented. Beyond this legal instrument, technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence (AI), also enhance how both the state and the public engage with the right to environmental information. Yet AI may also act to supplant the public's and the state's role in the right of access to environmental information. This article examines the underexplored intersection between AI and the right to environmental information, considering what impacts AI may have on the right's environmental democratic aims and whether the use of AI complies with the procedural obligations imposed by the Aarhus Convention.