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environmental protection would be better served if they were to require
that plans and projects be assessed against, and approved or rejected by,
reference to statutorily prescribed environmental standards.
141
The con-
cern with environmental assessment in its purely procedural form is that
it may have no effect on decision-making. This is because decision-
makers, whilst they must take environmental information provided
into account, are not obliged to accord it any speci
c weight as against
other matters.
142
The sole requirement is that it is considered, although
this may have substantive implications if clear grounds for refusing
development or rejecting proposals are ignored. However, an important
consideration is whether giving environmental assessment substantive
content would exchange its potential to promote the identi
cation and
adoption of alternatives that represent the best option from an environ-
mental perspective for a focus on identifying those that would satisfy
speci
c standards.
143
The weak in
uence of environmental considerations in decision-
making cannot be attributed solely to weaknesses in legal requirements
for environmental assessment. It is more a consequence of a systemic
failure at European and national levels to hold an ethical debate of the
type I call for in
Chapter 2
, to make the ecological value judgment that I
argue would
ow from this, and to make corresponding reforms to laws
that lay down decision-making procedures. That said, both sides of the
above debate are relevant to an exploration of the role of environmental
assessment in ecological governance. The evaluation of alternatives is
central to the search for ways in which ecological stresses can be
reduced.
144
Environmental assessment would remain valuable as an
independent mechanism for feeding information into decision-making
141
C. Jones et al.,
in J. Holder and
D. McGillivray (eds) Taking Stock of Environmental Assessment: Law, Policy and
Practice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), p. 41; W. Howarth,
'
Environmental Assessment: dominant or dormant?
'
Substance and Procedure
under the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive and the Water Framework
Directive
'
in J. Holder and D. McGillivray (eds) Taking Stock of Environmental
Assessment:Law,PolicyandPractice(Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), p. 188.
'
142
Jones et al.,
'
Environmental Assessment
'
,pp.32
-
3; J. F. Benson,
'
What
is the
Alternative? Impact Assessment Tools and Sustainable Planning
'
(2003) 21 Impact
Assessment and Project Appraisal, 261.
143
D. McGillivray and J. Holder,
in J. Holder and D. McGillivray (eds)
Taking Stock of Environmental Assessment: Law, Policy and Practice (Abingdon:
Routledge, 2008), pp. 11
'
Taking Stock
'
-
12.
144
See my discussion of alternatives assessment at Chapter 3,
Section 3.3
.
