Lecture 7

Role of Environmental Assessment in

Sustainable Development
 DEFINING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The World Commission on Environment and

Development(WCED)approached the concept more directly
in its report, which is referred to as the “Brundtland
Report”(1987):

 Sustainable development is.. . development that

meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• The successful pursuit of sustainable development
relies on a mixture of substantive and process-oriented
considerations

– The first of the substantive principles is the

satisfaction of human needs.
– The second substantive principle, the maintenance of
ecological integrity
– The third substantive principle is the achievement of
equity and social justice.
Environmental Assessment for SD

• Environmental assessment can be defined as comprising both

– Proactive processes (environmental impact assessment or EIA; SEA) and
– Reactive processes(Environmental Auditing)
• Securing the quality of the environment for health and wellbeing

• Conserving and using the environment and natural resources for the
benefit of present and future generations

• Restoring, maintaining and enhancing the ecosystem and ecological

processes essential for the functioning of the biosphere
– To preserve biological diversity and
– For the optimum sustainable yield in the use of natural resources

• Promoting public awareness on the link between development and the

environment
 Role of EIA in Sustainable Development

• It is possible to have development without destroying the

environment
– This requires a gradual shift from uncontrolled
exploitation to efficient management of natural resources
• To ensure sustainable development the depletion of
renewable resources should not take place at a rate faster
than their rate of generation

• Only those technological developments with minimum

environmental hazards should be adopted in order to sustain
the environment for future generations
 Role of EIA in Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development is closely linked to the carrying

Capacity of an ecosystem as the latter determines the
limits to economic development

• Carrying capacity of a specific ecosystem is the

maximum rate of resource consumption that can be
sustained definitely in that specific area and
overexploitation of natural resources above this
maximum will lead to depletion and ecological
degradation
 Drawbacks of EIA in SD

• It is less likely to promote a wide range of the principles for

sustainable development

– Because its application is confined to the evaluation of

individual project proposals

– The objective is to anticipate and prevent environmental

impacts, with less concern for resilience and
responsiveness
 Improving EIA to support
Sustainable Development(SD)

There are three ways EIA can be improved to support SD:

1. The application of EIA (what is assessed) can be expanded to policies,

regulations and managerial decisions
2. The process of EIA (how assessment is done) can be made more public,
fair and interactive
3. The questions asked in EIA (why assessment is done) can address more
fundamental issues

EIA’s application should be expanded beyond its present project-orientation

• SEA as an option which is applied to policies, regulations and managerial
practices
 Why is SEA relevant to the international development agenda?

• Environmental sustainability underwrites sustained

economic growth

– Without recognizing the importance of environment in

their decision-making, the ability of development
planners to produce lasting positive outcomes will be
significantly impaired

• SEA directly supports the requirement of MDG to ‘integrate the

principles of sustainable development into country policies and
programmes and reverse loss of environmental resources’
 Why is SEA relevant to the international development agenda?

• SEA also meets the need for “the more holistic,

integrated and balanced strategic decision-making”

• Promoting harmonized approaches to environmental

assessment
Principal objective of SEA in SD
• To ensure that environment is given due consideration alongside
economic and social concerns in strategic decision-making
• The emphasis is more on the integrated assessment of and interplay
between the environmental, social and economic factors
 The value of SEA in development

Applying SEA to development has benefits for both decision-making

procedures and development outcomes
• It can:
– Provide the environmental evidence to support more informed
decision-making,
– Identify new opportunities by encouraging a systematic and thorough
examination of development options,
– Prevent costly mistakes, by alerting decision-makers to potentially
unsustainable development options at an early stage in the decision-
making process,
– Build stakeholder engagement in decision-making for improved
governance,
– Safeguard environmental assets for sustainable development with
poverty reduction,
– Facilitate trans-boundary co-operation around shared environmental
resources and contribute to conflict prevention.
 Where can SEA be applied in development?

• Policy, Plans and Programmes led by Partner Country Governments

– Macro-level strategies and plans
– Policy reforms and budget support programmes
– National sectoral development programmes
– Infrastructure investments programmes and plans
– Spatial development programmes and plans
– Transnational planning
• Policies and plans of donor Agencies
– Country Assistance Strategies and Plans
– Agency-wide sectoral development strategies
– Donor sectoral-policies
– Programmes and facilities to support private sector infrastructure investments
– Independent International Reviews
• Private sector initiatives:
– Large scale projects primarily financed by the private sector
 Environmental audits

• Audits of can provide the factual basis for the examination and
evaluation of the accuracy and utility of environmental impact
forecasts, leading to increased effectiveness and efficiency at the
technical and administrative levels

• They also have the potential to take the frame of reference to meet
a wider range of principles for sustainable development
•
• Maintaining the bias towards improving the prediction of impacts

• The audit can extend its role into the policy or goal-seeking sphere
and enhance a learning experience