Guidance on Integrating Climate Change and Biodiversity into ...

HOW TO ADDRESS BOTH CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY EFFECTIVELY IN SEAs:• Build them into the assessment and PP from the earliest stage and follow them throughout —start at the screening and scoping stages to build these issues into the mindset of all the keyparties: competent authorities and policymakers, planners, SEA practitioners and otherstakeholders. The SEA can be used as a creative process to support learning amongst all theseparties.• The consideration of biodiversity and climate change issues must be tailored to the specificcontext of the PP. It is not simply a checklist of issues to tick off. Each SEA can potentially bedifferent.• Be practical and use your common sense! When consulting stakeholders, avoid drawing out theSEA procedure and leave enough time to properly assess complex information.• Use the SEA as an opportunity to address key issues regarding different types of projects orspecific infrastructure projects. At this time, many options are still open (e.g. the location ofmotorways versus Natura 2000 network sites) and you can avoid problematic situations at theEIA/project level.CRITICAL CHALLENGES FOR ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY IN SEAs ARE TO:• Consider long-term trends both with and without the proposed PP and avoid ‘snapshot’analyses.• Assess the PP against the future baseline and key trends and their drivers taking into accountother PPs.• Consider the impact that predicted changes in the climate and biodiversity will have on theproposed PP, potentially over a long timescale, and its resilience and capacity to cope.• Manage complexity; consider whether implementation of part of a PP e.g. climate changemitigation, that might otherwise be positive in its impact, could have a negative impact on climatechange adaptation and/or biodiversity.• Consider what existing climate change and biodiversity objectives and targets need to beintegrated into the PP.• Consider the long-term and cumulative effects on climate change and biodiversity of PP asthese will be potentially significant given the complex nature of these topics.• Be comfortable with uncertainty. Use tools such as scenarios to help deal with the uncertaintyinherent within complex systems and imperfect data. Think about risks when impacts are toouncertain and factor this into monitoring to manage adverse effects.• Develop more resilient alternatives and solutions based on ‘win-win’ or ‘no regret’/‘lowregret’ approaches to PP development, given the uncertainty inherent in climate change andpredicting impacts on biodiversity.• Prepare for adaptive management and monitor to improve adaptive capacity.• Base your recommendations on the precautionary principle and acknowledge assumptionsand limitations of current knowledge.10 <strong>Guidance</strong> on integrating climate change and biodiversity into SEA