ID: 1747
Presenting Author: Jenny Pope
Session: 623 - Cumulative Effects: Whose Responsibility is it Anyway?
Status: pending
Opportunities for better collaboration and role clarity between governments and proponents in cumulative effects assessment and management are discussed.
It is widely accepted that cumulative effects are best managed through regional or strategic mechanisms, typically led by governments. It is not always entirely clear, however, how strategic assessments and bioregional planning really take cumulative effects into account and ensure they are managed over time. It is also rarely the case that regional assessments/plans are developed in advance of development, which leaves project proponents to fill the gap by conducting CEA as part of EIA. The challenges and limitations of a project-by-project approach are well documented, and include a lack of publicly available data on either the environment or the likely future developments within a region, a focus on project approvals rather than long-term sustainability, and inconsistent methodologies applied by different proponents in the same region. This raises the question of the role of government in supporting project-level CEA conducted by proponents – what can government offer to make the project-level CEA process both more consistent and more meaningful? Drawing on recent research and practice in Australia, exploring both regional/strategic and project-level approaches to CEA, opportunities for better collaboration and role clarity between governments and proponents are discussed in this panel session.
Jenny Pope is Director of Integral Sustainability, Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University, Extra-ordinary Professor at NWU in South Africa, and Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Le