IEMA's latest update on environmental impact assessment (EIA) practice including amended EIA Directive
Amended EIA Directive comes into force
On 15 May the EIA Directive (2011/92/EU) was amended by Directive 2014/52/EU. Member states do not have to transpose the amended Directive into national regulations until 15 May 2017, so there is unlikely to be consultation on proposals for quite some time.
However, there are several changes that EIA practitioners should begin to prepare for. These include:
- considering how climate change, human health and resource efficiency can be assessed more effectively within EIA (art.3 and annex 4);
- enhancing the approach taken by developers to pre-assess proposals to enable a screening decision to be made (art.4);
- improving, potentially, the quality of the writing and review of environmental statements, by ensuring those who undertake the work have competent expertise to do so (art.5);
- considering how efficient and effective monitoring strategies can be created to track the delivery and success of design elements and mitigation that aims to avoid, prevent or reduce significant adverse effects on the environment (art.8a(1); and
- introducing penalties for infringements (art.10a), and providing a definition for cumualtive effects (annex IV).
A webinar from IEMA reviewing the likely impact of the amendments on
UK EIA practice can be found here.
IEMA and Hong Kong Institute of EIA sign memorandum
At the end of May, IEMA agreed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Hong Kong Institute of EIA. Under the MOU, the two institutes will work to improve quality in impact assessment. Initial activities being developed include plans for webinar sessions to exchange experiences of EIA practice and good practice techniques. If you are interested in getting involved contact [email protected]
State of UK EIA practice 2014
The results of IEMA’s annual state of UK EIA practice for 2014 were revealed on 12 June at the Quality Mark Forum. Full details of the findings will be in the July issue of the environmentalist and will be presented in a webinar later in the summer. The EIA Quality Mark scheme has entered its fourth year of operation, with 50 organisations now registered.
EIA webinars
- Future EIA webinars from IEMA include:
- 26 June – Linking EIA and strategic environmental assessment.
- 31 July – Effective EIA: influencing renewable energy proposals
- 28 August – Effective EIA: managing community impacts
Book a place here.
