ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
the subject of an EIA, the environmental impact of the Conservative govern-
ment’s underlying massive road-building programme was never assessed.
There is evidence of a gradual shift from this ‘tactical’ EIA focus on individ-
ual projects towards strategic environmental assessment. A new EU directive
on Strategic Environmental Assessment came into force in 2004, extend-
ing environmental assessment to plans, programmes and overall policies,
which the European Commission believes is a vital step towards the full
integration of sustainable development across core economic sectors.^4 One
of the most innovative examples of this strategic shift is the New Zealand
Resource Management Act 1991, which made it mandatory for all regional
policies, regional and district plans, and resource consent applications to
be accompanied by an EIA, and for the authorities to monitor the impact
of their activities on the environment (Bartlett 1997 ). This kind of strategic
framework is most likely to emerge where a national government is taking
sustainable development planning seriously.Critical question 2
Are risk assessment, EIA and CBA friends or foes of the environment?◗ Planning
Sustainable development needs to be planned at several levels of govern-
ment. Traditionally, central government has usually taken responsibility for
controversial or dangerous issues such as nuclear power, hazardous waste
or air pollution, leaving sub-national government to deal with other envi-
ronmental matters, including land use planning, where flexibility and local
knowledge may produce better policy. In federal systems, such as in Ger-
many, Australia and the USA, the states have retained extensive environ-
mental competencies. In recent years, twin-pronged pressures have shifted
thelocus of policymaking towards central government. From the suprana-
tional level, national governments have encountered increasing pressure to
introduce new legislation and policy in order to fulfil international treaty
commitments such as carbon emission reductions or, in the EU, to imple-
ment environmental directives. Conversely, from within the nation state, the
worsening condition of the environment and its growing political salience
have encouraged most national governments to rein in responsibilities that
traditionally resided at the sub-national level (although the decentralised
Danish system is an exception). Nevertheless, the achievement of sustainable
development will still require a multilevel approach, preferably based on the
principle of subsidiarity, so that responsibilities lie at the lowest appropriate
level of government. Thus, to return to the centralisation–decentralisation
dilemma discussed in Chapter3,subsidiarity contains a primary principle of
administrative effectiveness underpinned by a secondary principle of decen-
tralisation. With this multilevel approach in mind, this section examines