ESIA and the Equator Principles

4th April 2012


Related Topics

Related tags

  • Management ,
  • Stakeholder engagement ,
  • Corporate governance ,
  • Construction

Author

IEMA

WSP's Martin Broderick reveals how by applying the Equator Principles the developing world is leading the way in environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA)

The Equator Principles have increased the attention given to social and economic issues within environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) in developing countries.

Their application to development projects, particularly in the mining sector, by low-income economies is pointing the way to improve the effectiveness of socioeconomic impact assessment in the more developed economies.

Managing risk

The Equator Principles are a set of 10 principles creating a framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in project finance transactions. While currently under review, the existing principles are:

  1. Review and categorisation
  2. Social and environmental assessment
  3. Applicable social and environmental standards
  4. Action plan and management system
  5. Consultation and disclosure
  6. Grievance mechanism
  7. Independent review
  8. Covenants
  9. Independent monitoring and reporting
  10. Equator Principles Financial Institutions reporting

Currently there are 74 financial institutions in 28 countries have officially adopted the Equator Principles, covering more than 70% of international project finance debt in emerging markets. Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs) commit to not providing loans to projects where the borrower will not or is unable to comply with their respective social and environmental policies and procedures that implement the principles.

The principles are based on International Finance Corp (IFC) performance standards, which were introduced to manage the environmental and social risks associated with project financing in low-income economies, while high-income economies were considered to have sufficient legislation in place to manage the risks associated with investing in activities such as mineral extraction. Perversely, however, this may not be the case.

At a recent International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) conference, a representative from a major financial institution, that provides significant project financing to the mining sector among others, opined that many important infrastructure projects in the UK would have failed to secure funding from his organisation because of inadequate stakeholder engagement processes and the poor treatment of impact mitigation and monitoring.

Learning lessons in developed nations

ESIA practice in high-income economies could be improved by incorporating the integrated systems that have arisen from the Equator Principles to ensure stakeholder engagement, impact mitigation and monitoring are properly addressed in the ESIA process.

Since they were implemented, the effectiveness of the Equator Principles, in both the original and current form has been intensively scrutinised by non-government organisations (NGOs) as well as other interest groups.

EPFIs hail the guidelines as a major shift in the banking industry, and praise the adoptees for taking a leading role in ensuring environmental and social responsibility in the project financing sector. The principles have also been well received by NGOs, as a step in the right direction for ESIA and promoting corporate social responsibility in the financial sector.

While it is accepted there are certainly flaws in the Equator Principles, there are two valuable reasons to support them:

  • The compliance covenants provide an example of a mandatory ESIA standard.
  • The Equator Principles represent a statement of intention to include ESIA in the project finance process.

Research has demonstrated that in mining projects guided by the Equator Principles the ESIA process had been more rigorously applied with respect to stakeholder engagement and impact mitigation and monitoring. It has also revealed a greater emphasis towards a community-focused development process, to maximise the benefits and minimise the potential negative impacts of the development, in those projects which had applied the principles.

In the UK, the lack of mandatory monitoring is undermining the effectiveness of the ESIA process, and studies have recommended the requirement for an environmental action plan should become a standard planning condition with the results of any monitoring made available to the public. It is interesting to note that both of these recommendations are Equator Principle requirements.

Studies into the effectiveness of the ESIA process in the UK have concluded that the social dimension has been very much the “poor relation”. Similarly, although consultation and public participation, as well as mitigation of environmental impacts, are encouraged at each step in the process, these have been identified as common weakness in practice in richer economies.

Consultation with the public and the statutory consultees process can help to ensure the quality, comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the ESIA process, as well as ensuring that the various groups’ views are adequately taken into consideration in the decision-making process.

Despite the recognised benefits of public participation to the process, it is inconsistently applied in the systems of some developed countries. There is also considerable scope for improving the implementation of mitigation measures and for impact and implementation monitoring.

It is clear the social dimension of ESIA practice in high-income economies could be improved by taking on board some of the requirements of the Equator Principles which have improved the effectiveness of the process, particularly in the mining sector of low-income economies.


This article was written as a contribution to the EIA Quality Mark’s commitment to improving EIA practice.

Martin Broderick is a senior technical director at WSP Environment & Energy. A version of this article first appeared in Mining People & Environment, July 2011.

Subscribe

Subscribe to IEMA's newsletters to receive timely articles, expert opinions, event announcements, and much more, directly in your inbox.


Transform articles

IEMA Impact: Shaping a sustainable future with impact assessment

Lisa Pool on how IEMA is shaping a sustainable future with impact assessment

27th November 2023

Read more

IEMA responded in September to the UK government’s consultation on the details of the operational reforms it is looking to make to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) consenting process as put forward in the NSIP reform action plan (February 2023).

24th November 2023

Read more

Members of IEMA’s Impact Assessment Network Steering Group have published the 17th edition of the Impact Assessment Outlook Journal, which provides a series of thought pieces on the policy and practice of habitats regulations assessment (HRA).

26th September 2023

Read more

In July, we published the long-awaited update and replacement of one of IEMA’s first published impact assessment guidance documents from 1993, Guidelines for the Environmental Assessment of Road Traffic.

1st August 2023

Read more

Are we losing sight of its intended purpose and what does the future hold for EIA? Jo Beech, Tiziana Bartolini and Jessamy Funnell report.

15th June 2023

Read more

Luke Barrows and Alfie Byron-Grange look at the barriers to adoption of digital environmental impacts assessments

1st June 2023

Read more

Susan Evans and Helen North consider how Environmental Statements can be more accessible and understandable

1st June 2023

Read more

IEMA’s Impact Assessment Network is updating its advice note on non-technical summaries (NTS).

31st May 2023

Read more

Media enquires

Looking for an expert to speak at an event or comment on an item in the news?

Find an expert

IEMA Cookie Notice

Clicking the ‘Accept all’ button means you are accepting analytics and third-party cookies. Our website uses necessary cookies which are required in order to make our website work. In addition to these, we use analytics and third-party cookies to optimise site functionality and give you the best possible experience. To control which cookies are set, click ‘Settings’. To learn more about cookies, how we use them on our website and how to change your cookie settings please view our cookie policy.

Manage cookie settings

Our use of cookies

You can learn more detailed information in our cookie policy.

Some cookies are essential, but non-essential cookies help us to improve the experience on our site by providing insights into how the site is being used. To maintain privacy management, this relies on cookie identifiers. Resetting or deleting your browser cookies will reset these preferences.

Essential cookies

These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website.

Analytics cookies

These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our website and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works.

Advertising cookies

These cookies allow us to tailor advertising to you based on your interests. If you do not accept these cookies, you will still see adverts, but these will be more generic.

Save and close