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A Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) is crucial for policy integration and for improving policy decisions. IA can improve and structure the knowledge base for the three basic (or more) dimensions of SD and make trade-offs transparent, while it remains in the political sphere to weigh up and decide for an alternative presented. IA has to be established as a governance procedure, and its scope of application has to be broadened to all major decisions.
The IA procedure will be reinforced if there is a legal obligation to mainstream sustainable development as a central organising principle for policies, as is the case in Wales.
Furthermore, the assessments should be made public (transparency of the procedure) and decision makers should be required to show how they used the IA for their policy decisions. While there is room for improvement in some aspects, EEAC considers the IA system of the European Commission as a good practice example, amongst others because of its transparency (all IA reports are announced and published on a website), the encompassing scope of application, and systematically assessing impacts on the three key dimensions of SD, economic, environmental and social.
Guidance on Sustainability Impact Assessment
Sequence of steps in sustainability impact assessments
Relevance analysis |
Step 1. Screening the proposal
Step 2. Scoping the assessment |
Quick scan of a policy proposal to identify significant conflicts across economic, environmental and social dimensions warranting a sustainability impact assessment
Specification of the depth and extent of the assessment as proportionate to the importance of the proposal and the potential impacts |
Delineation |
Step 3. Selecting tools or methodologies to match the scoping
Step 4. Ensuring stakeholder participation |
Selection of the most appropriate tools and methods for the different stages of the sustainability impact assessment
Involvement of stakeholders through various means in different stages of the sustainability impact assessment |
Impact analysis |
5. Analysing the economic, environmental and social impacts
Step 6. Identifying synergies, conflicts and trade-offs across these impacts
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Assessment of the economic, environmental and social impacts of the policy proposal
Identification of the synergies, conflicts and trade-offs across identified economic, environmental and social impacts
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Optimisation |
Step 7. Proposing mitigating measures to optimise positive outcomes
Step 8. Presenting the results and options to policy makers |
Enumeration of modifications or supplemental measures to better balance economic, environmental and social concerns
Presentation of results of sustainability impact assessment to policy makers, including trade-offs, mitigating measures and options
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References:
- ARE (Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development). 2004. Sustainability Assessment: Conceptual Framework and Basic Methodology.
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http://www.eeac.eu/images/doucments/eeac-statement-backgr2011_rio_final_144dpi.pdf