The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) demonstrated an online map showing European industries and other sources which emit greenhouse gases and other major pollutants at an official side event to the Climate Change Conference, held in Copenhagen, on 15 December 2009. 

The PRTR demonstration map can be viewed at http://unece.unog.ch/enhs/pp/demo3/trymap.asp.

The information presented in the online map was produced using data publicly available and downloaded from the European PRTR portal - http://prtr.ec.europa.eu/.  The European PRTR contains data collected from 30 countries in line with the requirements of the European PRTR Regulation and the Kiev Protocol on PRTRs to the UNECE Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.

"The demonstration shows how the public and other third party users of environmental information can access and mash pollutant release and transfer data obtained through the Kiev Protocol and its sister regulation, the European PRTR" said Laura Altinger, PhD, UNECE Economic Affairs Officer. 

Dr. Altinger met in Copenhagen with Christiaan Adams, PhD, Google Earth and Maps Specialist, Google's top expert in web mapping, to discuss possible partnerships between UNECE and Google.

The PRTR side event was organized by the Republic of Armenia in cooperation with the International Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR) Coordinating Group, a United Nations interagency body serviced by UNECE.

For more information, contact Oleksandr Svirchevskyy, UNECE Information Officer, oleksandr.svirchevskyy@unece.org.

[Source: UNECE]