Addressing climate change through environmental assessment tools in planning processes: international practices and perspectives for Niger

2.1.2. Environmental Assessment

The concept of environmental assessment derived its origin from the United States National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) but it has been considered, some years ago, to have the same meaning as an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). As a matter of fact, many countries have been implementing EIA and an equivalent or comparable process in those countries is called environmental assessment (Parent, 2002; cited in Cissé, 2013).

Sadler (1996, p.15) defined environmental assessment as ^?a systematic process that consists of assessing and documenting the opportunities, capabilities and functions of natural resources and systems, in order to facilitate sustainable development planning and decision-making in general and to anticipate and manage the negative impacts and the consequences of development adjustments in particular^?. This definition, though seems to be broad contains some key terms such as `'assessing», `'anticipate» or `'negative impacts» and specifies the objective of environmental assessment. Cherp (2001) defined environmental assessment as ^?a formalised, systematic and comprehensive process for identifying, analysing, and evaluating environmental consequences of a proposed action, consulting the views of the affected parties, and taking the findings of this evaluation and consultation into account in planning, authorising, and implementing this action.^? While the first definition leant on process and impacts, the former one includes the issues of public involvement. Depending on the level of application, environment assessment can be considered a synonymous of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).

Environmental Impact Assessment

As mentioned above, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been considered as the same as the environmental assessment deriving from the same origin that is, the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Since then, many countries have been using it as tool in development projects planning

3 https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf.

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process even though the approach differs from one country to another. The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA,2009) defines EIA as `'the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigation the biophysical, social and other relevant effects of proposed development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made».

Strategic Environmental Assessment

The term `strategic environmental assessment' was coined in 1989 (Thomas et al., 2002) and an understanding of the concept was derived from that of project-based environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the principles of SEA and EIA were perceived to be the same. As stated by Dalal-Clayton and Sadler (1999, p.1), an internationally agreed definition of SEA does not exist, but the interpretation offered by Sadler and Verheem (1996) is among those which are widely quoted: "SEA is a systematic process for evaluating the environmental consequences of proposed PPP initiatives in order to ensure they are fully included and appropriately addressed at the earliest appropriate stage of decision-making on par with economic and social considerations». Moreover, SEA is often considered as a complement to project-based Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) so that environmental assessments are conducted at all levels of decision-making; from PPP formulation to project management and implementation (Chaker, et al., 2005).