Guidance on Integrating Climate Change and Biodiversity into ...

1. IntroductionThis section explains the purpose of the guidance, the approach it adopts, and how to use it tointegrate climate change and biodiversity into strategic environmental assessments (SEA). It isassumed that readers will be familiar with the SEA, so it does not introduce the basic SEA process.1.1 Nature and purpose of this guidanceClimate change and biodiversity loss are among the most important environmental challenges weface today. Both are complex and cross-cutting issues, which impact on nearly all human activity.This <strong>Guidance</strong> on Integrating Climate Change and Biodiversity into Strategic EnvironmentalAssessment (‘the guidance’) aims to help improve the consideration and assessment of climatechange and biodiversity issues into SEAs carried out across the EU Member States, under theDirective 2001/42/EC 2 (‘Strategic Environmental Assessment’ — ‘the SEA Directive’).The SEA DirectiveThe SEA Directive requires certain publicPPs to undergo an environmentalassessment before they are adopted.The SEA Directive applies to a wide rangeof public PPs (e.g. on land use, transport,energy, waste, agriculture, etc.).PP in the sense of the SEA Directive mustbe prepared or adopted by an authority(at national, regional or local level) andbe required by legislative, regulatory oradministrative provisions.The PPs covered by the Directive aresubject to an environmental assessmentduring their preparation, and beforetheir adoption. This includes the drawingup of an environmental report in whichthe likely significant effects on theenvironment and the reasonablealternatives are identified, and thecarrying out of consultations (with thepublic, the environmental authorities,and with other Member States in thecase of transboundary effects). Theenvironmental report and the results ofthe consultations are taken into accountbefore adoption of the proposed PP.Once a PP is adopted, the environmentalauthorities and the public are informedand relevant information is madeavailable to them. SEA Directive alsorequires monitoring of significantenvironmental effects of the PP in orderto identify unforeseen adverse effects atan early stage of PP implementation.As a legally required and specifically defined process,SEAs are an opportunity to systematically integrateclimate change and biodiversity in a standardisedapproach into plans and programmes (PPs) across the EU.This is an opportunity that cannot be missed if Europe is toachieve its environment and development objectives.This guidance addresses the specific issues and challengesthat climate change and biodiversity bring to SEA;complementary guidance was prepared on the integrationof climate change and biodiversity into environmentalimpact assessments (EIA). The SEA guidance is designed tobe used by competent authorities and policymakers,planners, SEA practitioners and other stakeholders acrossthe Member States and candidate countries.This guidance highlights how you need to integrate climatechange and biodiversity issues effectively into the SEAprocess. It is arranged in a way that will encourage usersto think about how important climate change andbiodiversity — as assessment issues — are likely to be fora specific PP and SEA processes.This guidance applies to SEAs carried out for differenttypes of PPs, and their revisions, required under theDirective — it is therefore inevitably generic. It is alsointended to apply across all the Member States and theirrespective legislative and governance structures, and tosupplement rather than conflict with any national SEA2 Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plansand programmes on the environment, OJ L 197, 21.7.2001, p.30.12 <strong>Guidance</strong> on integrating climate change and biodiversity into SEA