Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
12.4.1 Environmental and sustainability appraisal
The UK government's White Paper on the Environment of September 1990 (DoE 1990)
promised that it would carry out “a review of the way in which the costs and benefits of
environmental issues are assessed within the Government”. A year later the DoE
published a guidebook entitled Policy appraisal and the environment and distributed
copies to central government mid-level managers (DoE 1991); it has been updated
recently (DEFRA 2003). The guidebook's procedures are not mandatory, but they aim to
help civil servants consider the environmental repercussions of their decisions and to
promote a “cultural change” in how civil servants formulate policies. Policy appraisal
and the environment suggests that the department or agency from which a PPP originates
should carry out the policy appraisal. A policy appraisal is needed whenever a policy is
likely to have a significant effect on the environment, particularly if that impact would be
irreversible. According to the latest guidebook, policy appraisal should aim to answer the
following questions:
• What does the policy or programme aim to achieve? (Include possible trade-offs,
conflicts and constraints.)
• What are the options for achieving your objectives?
• What impacts will these have on the environment at home and abroad? (Consider both
direct and indirect costs and benefits; possible mitigation measures; and need for risk
assessment.)
• How significant are the impacts? How large are they in relation to the other costs and
benefits of the policy concerned?
• How far can the costs and benefits be quantified without disproportionate effort?
• What method will be used to value the costs and benefits? (Options include using
monetary values, calculating physical quantities and systematic ranking or listing of
impacts.)
• What is the preferred option and why?
• What arrangements are in place for effective monitoring and evaluation? (What data
will be needed and when?)
• How will the appraisal be publicized? (DEFRA 2003)
At the central government level, these guidelines have been of limited effectiveness in
promoting SEA. A DoE (1994) publication entitled Environmental appraisal in
government departments, which summarizes central government studies carried out in
response to Policy appraisal and the environment, does discuss a range of studies, but
these were mainly cost benefit analyses (CBAs), not SEAs, and the booklet's publication
was widely seen as a pro forma exercise. The Sustainable Development Unit's (2003)
Integrated Policy Appraisal guidance aims to deal with some of these problems.
In contrast, a real “SEA-change” in the UK was begun by the PPG 12, Development
plans and regional planning guidance (DoE 1992), which required local authorities to
conduct an “environmental appraisal” of development plan policies, and referred them to
Policy appraisal and the environment for guidance on this appraisal process. In response
to this guidance, some local authorities began to carry out environmental appraisals,
albeit using much simpler techniques than those advocated by the government. In
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