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In-Depth Information
are available to satisfy needs.
84
Noble, in his argument for a genuinely
strategic form of environmental assessment, also emphasises its poten-
tial role in aiding the selection of the best alternatives to reach desired
ends.
85
I concur with these views in proposing that the assessment of
different options should be conducted as the
rst stage in ecological
policy formation.
The practice of assessing alternatives to proposed governmental plans
and programmes as part of strategic environmental assessment is well-
established.
86
This typically involves comparing a range of
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alternatives with extant policies or proposals. The hope is that this will
promote ascertainment and adoption of the option that is best from an
environmental perspective amongst those considered although not nec-
essarily of the best options for environmental protection.
87
My proposals
for alternatives assessment go beyond current practice in requiring that
an absolute review be conducted of the different means available for
meeting needs in policy areas under consideration. The purpose of this
review would be to identify those options that would present the lowest
collective threat of harm to ecosystem health. The options to be consid-
ered under this process would include means of achieving ends that
avoid development or which otherwise depart from typical practices for
meeting demand. By way of example, the ecological rami
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reasonable
cations of
avoiding large power plant construction through promoting decentra-
lised generation would be a relevant consideration in the energy context.
The intended output of alternatives assessment is a hierarchy of options
ranked according to their propensity to erode resilience and contribute
to the triggering of regime shifts which might then be used in the
development of strategies for risk reduction and, ultimately, in policy
formation.
The key issue for alternatives assessment under the framework is how
different options are to be evaluated when we are uncertain about what
their causal impacts on ecosystem functionality would be if deployed.
84
M. O
Alternatives Assessment: Part of Operationalizing and Institutionalizing
the Precautionary Principle
'
Brien,
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in C. Raffensperger and J. A. Tickner (eds) Protecting Public
Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle (Washington,
DC: Island Press, 1999), pp. 207
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19; Tickner,
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Precautionary Decision-making
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,
pp. 267
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8, 274
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6.
85
Noble,
'
Strategic Environmental Assessment
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, 210.
86
M. F. Tetlow and M. Hanusch,
'
Strategic Environmental Assessment: The State of the
Art
'
(2012) 30 Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal,17
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18.
87
A. J. Bond and A. Morrison-Saunders,
'
Sustainability Appraisal: Jack of all Trades,
Master of None?
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(2009) 27 Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal,326
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7.
