ID: 1762
Presenting Author: Luis Sánchez
Session: 519 - Perspectives on assessing cumulative impacts in the Global South
Status: pending
Factors that hinder the adoption of cumulative impact assessment internationally are presented as challenges to be addressed to further practice internationally.
The increasing growth in energy demand driven by both transitioning away from fossil fuels and energy intensive data processing is pushing the construction of electricity generation and transmission facilities. Itis boosting the demands for minerals and the construction of new transportation infrastructure, often in remote areas and traditional territories of indigenous and land-connected peoples. Moreover, the production of biofuels and agricultural commodities not only drives land use change, but also the development of infrastructure in those regions.
Addressing their combined effects of such development, that mostly takes place in the Global South, requires structured approaches to assess cumulative impacts, but there is limited experience in most countries.
We discuss five factors that hinder the widespread adoption of CIA: (i) Despite general legal provisions in many countries, specific requirements are absent even in countries with well-established EIA systems; (ii) Low technical capacity among practitioners; (iii) Insufficient CIA-specific guidance; (iv) Poor connections to decision-making, usually linked to project-specific approvals; (v) Weak governance to deliver mitigation of cumulative impacts by multiple agents.
Although approaches developed in the Global North are extremely valuable to advance CIA worldwide, we argue that the practice has to be fit-for-purpose and adapted to the legal and sociopolitical context of each jurisdiction if the above listed challenges are to be addressed.
Luis Sanchez teaches environmental impact assessment at the University of Sao Paulo.
Coauthor 1: Juliana Siqueira-Gay