The Convention sets out the obligations of Parties—that is States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention—to carry out an environmental impact assessment of certain activities at an early stage of planning.
It also lays down the general obligation of States to notify and consult each other on all major projects under consideration that are likely to have a significant adverse environmental impact across boundaries.
[2][needs update]Once in force it will: allow, as appropriate, affected Parties to participate in scoping; require reviews of compliance; revise the convention's Appendix I (list of activities); and make other minor changes.
The first case in which an inquiry commission was established under article 3(7) was that of the Bystroe Canal, at the request of Romania in 2004.
[4] A case which involved countries far apart on the globe was raised by Micronesia, which claimed that the Czech coal-fired plant at Prunerov was significantly affecting its climate due to global warming.