Environmental Impact Assessment Law Research Articles

Access to Environmental Justice in Canadian environmental impact assessment

Contemporaneous reforms to Canada and British Columbia's environmental impact assessment legislation have the potential to advance Access to Environmental Justice. Access to Environmental Justice is the ability of individuals and communities who are disproportionately and negatively impacted by environmental decisions to access legal and regulatory processes and to have their concerns heard and addressed through environmental decision-making and dispute resolution. Access to Environmental Justice connects concepts of environmental justice, public participation, the rule of law, and access to justice to provide a framework for evaluating the implementation of environmental impact assessment laws. We conducted a preliminary analysis of early implementation of legislative reforms in Canada and British Columbia. Our analysis indicates that a number of factors influence who is seeking to access environmental justice through environmental impact assessment, including geography, project type, and the availability of a legislative mechanism that allows anyone to request an assessment. Whether Canada and British Columbia's reforms are advancing Access to Environmental Justice requires continued analysis as projects continue to be assessed under the new laws.

Constitutional and Judicial Interpretation of Environmental Laws in Nigeria, India and Canada

The judiciary, an important branch of government responsible for legal interpretation, dispute resolution, and justice administration, holds a crucial role in national environmental protection. Courts play a key role in safeguarding a nation's environment by interpreting constitutional provisions related to environmental protection and other legislative frameworks. The effectiveness of a country's environmental protection is contingent on the assertiveness, creativity, and innovation of its judiciary in interpreting laws, policies, and regulations designed for environmental preservation. The widely held belief is that the judiciary, more than any other institution, is best positioned to adjudicate, inform, guide, and lead in environmental protection. A proactive, inventive, and inspirational judiciary motivates the executive and legislative branches to implement pertinent environmental laws, policies, and regulations. This study utilizes a doctrinal research methodology to comprehensively review and compare the environmental protection frameworks in Nigeria, India, and Canada. The focus is on constitutional provisions related to environmental protection and judicial interpretations, particularly in the context of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) laws. While explicit constitutional provisions on environmental protection are absent in Canada, India, and Nigeria, the courts in India and Canada have demonstrated creative interpretation of their constitutions to safeguard the environment. Notably, in India, environmental protection falls under the non-adjudicable Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP).

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge: the environmental logic of three EIAs

This article discusses the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge from the perspective of environmental protection. What is peculiar about this bridge is that three different sets of environmental impact assessment (EIA) obligations were relevant during its developmental stage. The reason why we see such an oddity is because the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, as its name tells, links three different jurisdictions, which are in the same country. As each jurisdiction has its own EIA law, different priorities, values and expectations are engendered. It will be argued that the conflicting laws only hampered environmental protection, in particular, the protection of the marine ecology of the Pearl River Estuary over which the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge crosses.

Planning environmental impact assessment law in China: Status quo, implementation problems and legislative reform

As the primary form of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) mandated by law in China, the planning environmental impact assessment (PEIA) serves to anticipate the likely environmental impacts that may arise out of the proposed plans. In this research, systematic reviews of local practice and major reforms of the PEIA system were conducted to have a comprehensive understanding of the implementation of the PEIA system, so as to clarify the direction and focus of PEIA lawmaking. PEIA documents issued by local governments in China since 2010 were collected to find the development and breakthrough of PEIA laws in local practice. Major reforms of the planning system and environmental governance system in recent years were also examined to find the outdated premises of PEIA laws. The results showed that today the PEIA laws face multiple problems in implementation, including the exclusion of policy EIA, outdated screening and scoping requirements, insufficient guarantee for quality of the review procedure, limited public participation and information disclosure, confusing circumstances for initiating follow-up assessment, and invalid legal liability for participants of the EIA process. To solve these problems through legislative reform, this paper suggests amending the Environmental Impact Assessment Law to extend planning EIA to policy EIA, update the screening and scoping requirements, adjust procedures for review of EIA documents, strengthen public participation and supervision, specify procedures for follow-up assessments, and improve legal liability for violating PEIA obligations.

China's environmental impact assessment reform from the perspective of public-private collaboration

Environmental impact assessment is the scientific assessment and administrative review of the potential environmental pollution risks of construction projects. The allocation of the relevant authorities in the EIA approval process is an important task of the EIA law. In order to analyze the justification of the direction of clarifying the cooperation of multiple subjects in the reform of China's environmental impact assessment law, this study, on the basis of contract theory and incentive compatibility principle, compared the institutional roles of the above-mentioned three subjects for integrated utility optimization, by weighing their interests in the EIA procedure. It can be found that not only the excessive guidance by the central government on local EIA procedures is detrimental to the sustainable development of local economies, but the independence of local governments in conducting EIA procedures will lead to the EIA procedures giving way to economic development goals. As a conclusion, only under the guidance of the concept of public-private collaboration, the central government, local governments, and the public jointly play an important role in the EIA system. This study will provide a theoretical basis for a new round of revision of China's EIA law, which will ultimately achieve the goal of good governance of the EIA system by enhancing the practical effects of public participation.

Evaluating EIA implementation in China: An empirical study of 161 EIA judicial cases

To play EIA's role as a preventative and participatory tool, the 2003 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law was significantly amended in 2016 to optimize EIA approval authority and procedure, raise project developers' violation costs, and clarify public participation rules. This article evaluates how the main provisions of this Law have been enforced in practice by analyzing 161 judicial cases collected. Case analysis reveals the main case typology, plaintiffs, violations concerned, and environmental agencies' losing rate. More specifically, the majority of these 161 cases are brought by project developers, challenging the legality of penalty decisions and disapproval decisions imposed on them. The dominant form of violation is construction without EIA approval, a chronic challenge haunting China's EIA enforcement. The interested parties are admitted with standing in most lawsuits filed against EIA approval, mainly due to the relaxed standing requirements. Nevertheless, the losing rate of environmental agencies in selected EIA cases is higher than that of general environmental cases, raising doubts about the effectiveness of the 2016 EIA Law's efforts to promote a more efficient and prudent approval procedure.

The Feasibility of Constructing a Greenhouse Gas Emission Assessment System in China and Its Legislative Path

In order to achieve the ambitious carbon peak and neutrality targets, China is in the process of revising Environmental Impact Assessment Law. This study is devoted to the proposition of how to incorporate activities regulating greenhouse gas emissions into the legal system of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This study is inspired by the Embedding Theory, which provides the explanatory framework that allows economic activities to be regulated by political and social norms. This framework requires a relevance and cost analysis of the three indicators required to regulate economic activities: administrative support, technical support, and legal support. The results reveal that the structure of China’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Assessment (GGEA) system and that of the EIA system are closely related and that the generation and transaction costs involved in the process of institution embedding are low. This result satisfies the requirements of the Embedding Theory for achieving institutional coupling. In conclusion, this study provides an outlook on the direction of the revision of China’s EIA Law from the perspective of building a rule of law pathway for GGEA with “4EM-3CS-3RC” as the core.

How to fully implement legal principles in China's EIA review and approval

This article explores the problems arising out of the EIA review and approval by examining 63 administrative judicial decisions. Each of the 63 administrative judicial decisions have been analyzed in this paper to determine the causes of actions, what the specific claims made by plaintiff and to summarize the features of the relevant cases. The results indicate that, problems arising in the procedure of EIA examination and approval by Chinese local administrative organs mainly consist of insufficient information disclosure, infringement of the public's right to know, violation of public participation provisions, unlawful revocation of EIA permission, delay in review and approval, and failure to perform the examination duties, all of which can be further categorized into following types, that is, deficiency in the EIA information openness and deficiency in procedural justice and legitimacy in respect of the EIA review and approval procedure, which show that the legal principles stipulated in the Administrative Licensing Law of People's Republic of China are ignored in respect of EIA approval. In order to solve these problems, this paper is of the opinion that the Chinese local environmental protection departments should not only abide by the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of the People's Republic of China, but also strictly follow the legal principles stipulated in the Administrative Licensing Law of People's Republic of China, such as the principle of lawfulness of administration doctrine, openness, procedural fairness, reliance protection, supervision, etc., so as to ensure that China's EIA permits are carried out along the track of legalization.

Benefits and drawbacks of EIA decentralisation in Pakistan

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) was decentralised in Pakistan in 2010. The literature mentions compromised EIA effectiveness in the country, but no previous study tried to investigate how decentralisation of environmental governance has influenced EIA effectiveness. This study is the first of its kind which explores the opinions of key EIA stakeholders regarding the benefits and drawbacks of EIA decentralisation. Thirty-seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with officials from environmental protection agencies (EPAs), Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) and former Ministry of Environment officials and EIA consultants. Interview data was categorised into themes related to pros and cons of decentralisation. The biggest benefit offered by decentralisation to the EPAs was to make their own customised EIA laws and regulations. However, to date, four EPAs have somewhat modified the 1997 Pakistan Environmental Protection Act and two have updated the 2000 Initial Environmental Examination/EIA regulations. Limited coordination between EPAs and MoCC, political influence and lack of accountability of EPAs were highlighted as the drawbacks of decentralisation. Some EPA officials, however, mentioned that the environmental condition of their areas has improved due to the autonomy of EPAs. Decentralisation is a good idea if provinces use their right to legislate effectively and some sort of accountability mechanisms for EPAs are introduced. The study holds significance because it fills an important knowledge gap. The experience of key EIA stakeholders from the entire country regarding a decentralised EIA system provides insight not just for Pakistan but to policymakers worldwide who may want to decentralise or recentralise EIA in their countries. Future studies may be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of EIA legislation updated by some EPAs.

Strategic environmental assessment implementation: variation across regions in China

ABSTRACT As a significant decision support tool, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) has been legally necessitated since 2003 when the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of the P.R. China was put into effect. However, the different national development targets and the social and economic development gaps between the western region and the eastern region of China greatly influence the SEA implementation. This paper demonstrates the differences in the SEA implementation between the western region and the eastern region of China and discusses the reasons for the disparities. Reviewing government policies and conducting in-depth interviews are selected as the two main research methods. The disparities of SEA implementation existing in intervention time, alternatives, public participation, and monitoring are presented. The differences are caused by the impacts of local SEA regulations and policies, institutions and experts, public attitudes, local government attitudes, strength of Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB), funding, national government strategies, and policies and regulations of environmental management.

Tanzanian Environmental Impact Assessment Laws and Practice for Projects in World Heritage Sites

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an integral component of sound decision-making. Environmental impact assessment helps to prevent or reduce environmental harms by informing the decision-makers the likely environmental impacts of intended project, its alternatives and/or mitigation measures before the implementation starts. This study examines the effectiveness of Tanzania EIA laws and related practice on the protection of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the world heritage sites during implementation of development projects. The study used data obtained from government officials, policies, laws and reports; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and World Heritage Committee reports; and scholarly works. The study demonstrates that Tanzania EIA laws are inadequate to ensure effective protection of OUV of world heritage sites against harms caused by development projects. The laws do not guarantee effective and broader participation of stakeholders and inclusion of heritage impact assessment in EIA study. The study, therefore, recommends for reform of EIA laws and institutions responsible for supervising EIA.

Legal Problems of Environmental Impact Assessment in Thailand Calling for Law Revision

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is well-known and widely used as an essential tool for environmental management. Over the past 40 years, there have been problems and obstacles in law enforcement and prosecutions in many cases under the EIA laws related to national development projects in Thailand. For this reason, this article aims to present the results of a study of the legal measures on the EIA process in Thailand. This study was conducted through reviewing concepts and theories concerning the EIA and related laws both in Thailand and abroad. The main objective of this study was to analyze the condition of problems and obstacles caused by attempts made in the law enforcement. The importance of the study would result in revision of the laws related to the EIA process to achieve sustainable development goals.

Procedural Effects of Environment Impact Assessment on Controlling Natural Disaster (Landslides and Flashflood) Based on Environmental Degradation from Development in Malaysia

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a preemptive tool used by engineers, environmental consultants and planners to avoid the most likely adverse consequences of development projects. As a planning tool, EIA should curb the harmful effects from all stages of a project lifecycle. Landslides and flash floods are the most common problems faced by Malaysians almost yearly due to rapid development, especially that involving modification of watercourses, clearing of land and projects on hill slopes. Despite such issues, existing legislation and new guidelines have been enacted by the Malaysian government and must be followed by any proposing project team before starting development projects. The Department may have accepted an EIA report of the project. Still, several developments may have neglected the guidelines, especially during construction involving earthworks and exposure of the surrounding environment, place and people to a high risk of disaster caused by mishaps and accidents. The incidence of landslides and flash floods as reported in newspapers, journals, reports and books since 1919 is explored in this study to determine the details of the losses and locations. Despite the enactment of the new EIA law, landslides and flash floods continue to occur. This situation justifies the need to revise the approach based on sizes and include other factors, namely, the risk indices for disaster to happen and the effectiveness of EIA in reducing disaster risks in projects.

Research on environmental impact assessment system and legalization in China

In order to solve the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection, the environmental impact assessment system used by western countries has been gradually introduced into China. It is a scientific and professional assessment system, which is regarded as the best tool to solve the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. The implementation of the environmental impact assessment system can undoubtedly prevent some construction projects from having serious adverse impact on the environment. Through the comparison and selection of the feasibility schemes, the environmental impact of some construction projects can be minimized. Therefore, the environmental impact assessment system is regarded as an important pillar and effective legal system for the implementation of predictive environmental policy, which has attracted more and more attention in the world. In order to implement the strategy of sustainable development, prevent the adverse impact on the environment caused by the implementation of planning and construction projects, and promote the coordinated development of economy, society and environment, China has formulated the environmental impact assessment law. The law came into force on September 1, 2003 and was amended for the second time on December 29, 2018.

Strategic Environmental Engineering Impact Assessment for analyzing carrying capacity of Water resources

Water assets are the fundamental and essential regular assets for creaturebreathing, most significant components for confining common habitat, human endurance and advancement. World is confronting genuine hose contamination and dampen deficiencies. In this paper, in light of "Natural Engineering Impact Assessment", assessment and investigation techniques in arranging venture on Strategic assets conveying limit were investigated. It had extraordinary centrality on executing the Environmental Impact Assessment Law, understanding water assets and water condition issues looked by the world, and accomplishing supportable utilization of water assets.

In the Name of Legitimacy and Efficiency: Evaluating China’s Legal Reform on EIA

Abstract The environmental impact assessment (EIA) system is currently located at the centre of China's environmental legal reform. The Chinese government has undertaken significant legal strategies to rectify past regulatory wrongs, close enforcement gaps, and improve public participation. However, ongoing administrative reform and prevailing policies optimizing the business environment have made the efficacy of EIA reform more complicated and uncertain. Through examining how EIA laws and regulations on accountability, compliance, and participation have changed, this article provides an analytical framework to evaluate current legal reform of EIA. It finds that the Chinese government is attempting to bring about genuinely functional EIA reform by improving the legitimacy and efficiency of EIA in delivering better environmental decisions. Yet, its efforts could be undermined by the unsettled conflict between legitimacy and efficiency. Furthermore, functional EIA reform could be constrained by peripheral challenges such as inconsistent institutional arrangements, the undefined role of the judiciary, and an underrepresented environmental public interest.

Advances in Environmental Impact Assessment Laws in India: A Study of 25 Years of Enforcement and Governance [1994-2019

Advances in Environmental Impact Assessment Laws in India: A Study of 25 Years of Enforcement and Governance [1994-2019

The Role and Problems of Environmental Impact Assessment in Governing Hydro-Power Projects in Cambodia

Hydro-power projects on the Mekong River may cause great impacts on sustainability of the river. This paper investigates the role of Cambodia’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) in governing hydro-power projects and examines whether the current EIA legal regime is capable to address the challenges raised by hydro-power projects. The author finds that Cambodia has established high standards in EIA legal framework. Some proposed requirements, such as the consideration of the impacts of climate change and trans-boundary impacts, may constitute great challenge for future enforcement. Case study in hydro-power projects suggests that the implementation of EIA is far from fulfilling the purposes promised by the black letters in the law. Currently, the main difficulties in implementation are lack of capacity building and public participation. The imperfection of land law as an external element is another obstacle to the effectiveness of EIA law. As a mid-stream riparian state of the Mekong River, on one hand Cambodia is facing potential negative impacts of hydro-power projects in Lao PDR and China, on the other hand, its hydro-power projects may add more threats to the sustainability of Mekong River. This paper argues that for the sustainability of the Mekong water system, Cambodia should implement its EIA law seriously and speed the work of land titles.

Consideration of the operational change after constraction in the projects of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law

Consideration of the operational change after constraction in the projects of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law

Testing an ex-ante framework for the evaluation of impact assessment laws: Lessons from Canada and Brazil

Scholars have been increasingly investigating legislative changes in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). However, most of the existing evaluation frameworks have been applied to ex-post scenarios, after EIA laws and respective policies and regulations had been implemented for some time. This article has a twofold objective: first, to propose an ex-ante framework for the evaluation of proposed EIA laws and, second, to test the application of the framework to bills C-69 and PL-3729, which target federal-level EIA reform in Canada and Brazil, respectively. The proposed framework is meant to indicate the extent to which proposed legislative changes meet 50 good practice criteria, thus providing a more balanced and transparent account of the issues that should be addressed effectively in the legislative process and in future regulations and guidelines. Results indicate very contrasting scope and potential effects of proposed legislative changes in the two countries. Brazil's bill is essentially intended to integrate existing regulations into a law that would make EIA faster, simpler and less frequent. Canada's bill, recently approved by Parliament, includes a new Impact Assessment Act that is expected to deliver more comprehensive and credible assessments. The ex-ante framework, by exposing how close or distant proposed EIA regimes are from good practices, can be particularly helpful in lawmaking and regulatory design. The article finally discusses limitations and highlights future avenues of research.