کاهش تغییرات آب و هوایی و سازگاری در ارزیابی زیست محیطی استراتژیک

Countries are implementing CO2 emission reduction targets in order to meet a globally agreed global warming limit of +2 °C. However, it was hypothesised that these national reduction targets are not translated to regional or state level planning, and are not considered through Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in order to meet emission reduction obligations falling on the transport, energy, housing, agriculture, and forestry sectors. SEAs of land use plans in the German state of Saxony, and the English region of the East of England were examined for their consideration of climate change impacts based on a set of criteria drawn from the literature. It was found that SEAs in both cases failed to consider climate change impacts at scales larger than the boundary of the spatial plan, and that CO2 reduction targets were not considered. This suggests a need for more clarity in the legal obligations for climate change consideration within the text of the SEA Directive, a requirement for monitoring of carbon emissions, a need for methodological guidance to devolve global climate change targets down to regional and local levels, and a need for guidance on properly implementing climate change protection in SEA.

The Copenhagen World Climate Conference of December 2009 concluded having set no ambitious targets. The international community has only half-heartedly accepted a maximum global warming limit of + 2 °C. That makes it all the more important that Europe continues to move forward decisively as the “climate protection engine” and demonstrates concrete ways to improve climate protection. Hence, this is just the beginning of activities for greater climate protection. What is now moving increasingly into focus is the issue of implementing the + 2 °C limit in various sectors, such as industry, transport and housing. Germany for its part wants to make its contribution by reducing CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020, over the figure of the base year, 1990. The UK, likewise, has committed to reducing CO2 (equivalent) emissions by 26% by 2020, and by 80% by 2050 for the same base year of 1990 (United Kingdom Parliament, 2008). Other EU countries too have adopted ambitious climate protection targets. Here, even the long-term goal of CO2-neutral economic development by 2050 is being discussed – meaning solutions which permit economic growth with the CO2 account completely balanced. But here too, the question arises: how is it to be implemented? Considerable shares of CO2 emissions have hitherto been generated by the sectors housing/built-up areas, commercial development and transport. In the UK, for example, 22% of emissions came from road transport, 14% from residential, 16% from businesses, and the balance from energy and other uses (Department of Energy and Climate Change, 2009a). That identifies three essential CO2 reduction sectors or “setscrews”, which can be influenced by spatial planning. In Europe, land use, residential and commercial development and the development of the transportation infrastructure are as a rule controlled by means of spatial planning instruments, for which Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) must generally be carried out under the terms of a European Union Directive European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2001. Indeed, SEA (and Environmental Impact Assessment) is recognised as the vehicle for the implementation of climate protection within spatial planning (Forsyth et al., 2009), and, thus, can be seen as the right tool for ‘climate proofing’ (Fröde and Kloss, 2011). The European Commission white paper on ‘Adaptation to Climate Change’ states that member states, stakeholders and the Commission should work together to “ensure that account is taken of climate change impacts when implementing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directives and spatial planning policies” (EC, 2009 p.13). Therefore, particularly such spatial control instruments as regional and land-use planning ( Fischer, 2010, Hoechstetter et al., 2010 and Rannow et al., 2010) have a decisive role to play, in combination with the SEA, in achieving CO2 savings (Birkmann and Fleischhauer, 2009). As currently applied, there is evidence that SEA is used to consider Climate Change (CC) in the context of the geographical area covered by the plan being assessed only, rather than also considering the global implications of resulting emissions (see, for example, Halsnæs and Trærup, 2009). We begin with the hypothesis that SEA, when applied to spatial planning at regional and local levels, does not accommodate the CO2 reduction targets which are necessary for achieving the + 2 °C limit. We test this hypothesis by determining what we might expect to see in any SEA when considering the CC implications of a plan, in the sectors over which spatial planning has influence, and examining practice to see whether CO2 reduction targets are implemented. The following section sets out the methodology used, with the two subsequent sections presenting case studies of regions within Germany and England, followed by an evaluation of the SEA Directive with respect to the obligations it imposes on member states to protect the climate.

Strategic Environmental Assessment is a particularly suitable instrument for the implementation of climate protection at the regional or local level, or in sectoral planning, such as transport planning. SEA can be seen as a real ‘policy integration tool’ (Cashmore et al., 2010) to encourage greater attention in policy formation for climate change mitigation. For climate protection to play a more important role within this strategic procedure however, some basic aspects must be adapted or taken into account. First of all, the EU should define the protected asset “climatic factors” more clearly in the SEA Directive than has hitherto been the case, particularly, too, for the purposes of global climate protection and climate adaptation (Helbron et al., 2011). However, it has to be taken into account that SEA should not be overstretched by extensive new requirements on ‘climate proofing’ (Runge et al., 2011). SEA is a tool to assess the impacts on the environmental parameters listed in legislation, like soil, biodiversity, water etc. Moreover, concrete practical action guidelines should be developed in the EU and in its member countries for the methodological implementation of climate protection in strategic assessment procedures. Methodological guidelines for devolving global climate protection targets down to the regional and local levels are necessary. Some first ideas about an operationalisation and regionalisation of targets have been made in this article. These guidelines should also contain concrete practical indications for the development of “climate friendlier” planning or programme alternatives, and for the development of avoidance, reduction and compensation measures which ensure low climate impact. By means of EU-wide pilot projects, practical ways could thus be demonstrated to achieve greater climate protection in development planning with the aid of the SEA. Particularly spatial and urban planning has a vast potential for energy and CO2 along with other greenhouse gases reduction, so that it is this planning or programme sector, and the transport sector which should be specifically addressed. The procedural step of consultations serves to focus attention on climate protection issues, particularly in regional and local populations. Pragmatic steps which are critical in facilitating the use of SEA for climate protection are adequate monitoring of current emissions and responsible subdivisions and individuals in environmental authorities. In this small case study two typical situations have been identified: 1) in Germany, there are insufficient data on existing local authority emissions collected as a basis for adequately assessing spatial plans; 2) in the UK, sufficient data are available on which to adequately assess spatial plans, but these data are not being used at present as the basis for setting climate protection targets. Thus methodological guidance is needed which sets out: (1) data which needs to be collected by authorities responsible for spatial plans; and (2) the basis on which climate protection targets can be set.