EIA transposition going ahead in Scotland and Wales; European Commission issues guidance; World Bank publishes new policy; and water and impact assessment.
The Scottish and Welsh governments are consulting on amending their EIA regimes to transpose the amended EIA Directive. In Scotland, eight EIA regimes are covered in the consultation, which ends on 31 October. They are: planning; energy; marine; transport and works projects; trunk roads; land drainage; agriculture; and forestry.
IEMA is hosting a workshop on the consultation in Glasgow on 8 September. It will include presentations by Bill Brash, transposition lead at the government, and me. The Scottish government is hosting its own workshop in Edinburgh on 5 October. The focus in Wales is on EIA in planning. Its consultation ends on 11 November and IEMA is in the process of scheduling workshops.
The European Commission has published guidance on how to link EIA, Habitats Directive assessment and other related IA processes. The guide is aimed at interpreting Art 2(3) of the amended EIA Directive’s joint/co-ordinated procedures when multiple impact assessments are required.
UVP Report, the journal of the German EIA Association, has published 11 of a planned 15 papers that consider the implications of the amended EIA Directive’s transposition across different member states. The special issue, published in English and German, was edited by IEMA Fellow, Professor Thomas Fischer and includes a paper on UK implications produced by leading IA thinkers.
In August, the World Bank took a major step forward in the way it would seek to enhance environmental and social risks related to projects it finances by approving a new framework (ESF). Its adoption comes after four years of consultations in more than 60 countries. The new ESF is likely to come into force in early 2018 and will place greater emphasis on using borrower frameworks and capacity building.
The IAIA, with its Ireland and UK branch, ran a successful symposium on water and impact assessment in Lincoln on 1–2 September. It was chaired by IEMA Fellow Dr Ross Marshall, with another Fellow, former Environment Agency chief executive Dr Paul Leinster, providing the opening keynote.
