Simplification of environmental and other impact assessments – results from an international online survey

Figures & data

Figure 1. National and regional EA/IA systems reported on by repondents.

Table 1. The 26 EA systems represented in the survey⁴.

1	Australia	National
2	Austria (2 respondents)
3	Brazil
4	Burkina Faso
5	Canada (3 respondents)
6	Czechia
7	Denmark
8	Germany (4 respondents)*
9	India
10	Mexico
11	Netherlands
12	Nigeria (2 respondents)
13	Peru
14	Poland (2 respondents)
15	Portugal
16	South Africa (9 respondents) *
17	Spain
18	Sudan
19	Sweden
20	UK (3 respondents)
21	Flanders (Belgium region)	Regional
22	New South Wales (Australian state)
23	Wales (UK nation)
24	Western Australia (Australian state)
25	Asian Development Bank (ADB)	International
26	African Development Bank (AfDB)

* The higher numbers for the systems from South Africa and Germany were likely due to the survey being mentioned at national EA conferences in those countries..

Table 2. Nature and location of the identified EA/IA simplification efforts.

Nature of simplification efforts	Reported in the following systems
Reducing EA timescales/timelines by either reducing procedural requirements or by streamlining/fast-tracking procedures	Canada, South Africa, Germany, UK, Portugal, Brazil, Austria, Poland Spain and New South Wales. In India this was said to include less stringent requirements for monitoring and for both, India and Brazil, less extensive public participation requirements were also mentioned.
Simplification of EA for certain projects/exclusion of certain types of projects from EA	South Africa, Peru, Canada, Germany, UK, Denmark, Portugal, Brazil and Mexico. In the cases of Germany, Denmark and Portugal, these efforts were said to apply to projects of the green economy and were based on a wider European Union initiative.
Reducing the length of EA documents by including fewer aspects and through e.g. digitalisation/online baseline information and associated with it better accessibility^5	UK, Australia, Nigeria and Brazil. Efforts to include fewer aspects in EA were also said to be in place in Peru, the UK and Brazil.
Reducing (‘simplifying’) standards and norms for assessments and simplifying guidelines.	South Africa, the Netherlands, Flanders and the UK*.
Reducing ‘thinking’ in EA towards a tick-box exercise	South Africa, with particular reference to a national online screening tool.
Reducing safeguards, such as making the involvement of the Netherlands EA Commission and the Flemish government’s ‘Team EIA’ optional only	Netherlands, Flanders
Curtailing rights to legally challenge decisions on developments	Poland
Refocusing EA away from prediction to mitigation and monitoring	Wales (related to flood risk management) and Brazil
The introduction of a rapid assessment framework for certain types of development	New South Wales
Integration of water framework directive associated EA with climate change associated IAs	Germany

* When in italics, then the respondent stated that this had not yet taken effect..