Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment Annual report 2017

In 2017 we again experimented together with municipalities and provinces to find out how environmental assessment can offer the best possible support when making choices in environmental strategies and environmental plans. The aim of such a strategy or plan is to integrate a municipality's spatial policies into a single plan. This requires the strategic environmental assessment report to have a different approach and different content: an emphasis on early participation, an integral approach to topics such as health, spatial quality and climate adaptation, the describing of regional values and the monitoring of impacts. In 2018, pilot projects are ongoing in Noord-Brabant province and the municipalities of Katwijk, Goirle, Haarlemmermeer and Rijssen-Holten. We will share the resulting knowledge and experience via meetings, publications and our website.

Deltaplan Ruimtelijke Adaptatie [Delta Plan spatial adaptation] is a joint plan prepared by all public authorities in the Delta Plan area for quickly and intensively tackling flooding and its impacts, and heat stress and drought. For example, all public authorities do a climate stress test. Climate adaptation can therefore no longer be left out of a strategic environmental assessment report for a land-use plan, environmental plan, or environmental strategy. We cover this in our fact sheet on climate adaptation and environmental assessment. We look forward to sharing our acquired knowledge and experience with you in 2018 in knowledge sessions.

The energy transition is a complex task that must be incorporated in environmental strategies, environmental plans and permits. Environmental assessment offers substantive support and foundation. In 2017, we organised well-attended knowledge sessions about onshore Wind Farms and the role of environmental impact assessment. Most questions were about 'How to find the best locations for wind turbines and how to deal with the effects on landscape, nature and nuisance for local residents? How do you organise participation?' We have listed this in the fact sheet "Wind Farms on Land and Environmental Impact Assessment." In 2018, energy will remain an important theme for us in our advisory work and we will gladly share our knowledge and experience with you through workshops and fact sheets.

In 2017, several EIA procedures for airports destined for different purposes or more intensive use were running. The environmental impact assessment report for such an adaptation answers questions such as 'Where does the noise nuisance increase?' and 'What is the impact on air quality?'.

At Groningen Airport Eelde we advised not only to assess the joint effects of all flight movements at the airport, but also those of individual activities, such as training flights, commercial flights and the testing of drones. With that information, choices for activities can be well substantiated. In 2017, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and the Schiphol Group took up our earlier advice to better map the effects of take-off and landing. The ministry chose to use the European calculation instruction for the calculation of aircraft noise contours. The EIA report containing new calculations of aircraft noise nuisance is expected to be presented to us for review before the summer.

There has been a lot of discussion about the environmental impacts of the Lelystad Airport expansion. In order to be able to expand from 2019 onwards, aircraft will temporarily fly lower than previously anticipated. In addition, part of the input data in the 2014 EIA report was found to be incorrect. The Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment therefore decided to revise the EIA report and to describe the environmental impacts using the right input data and lower flight paths.

Once or twice a year, environmental assessment professionals from several African and Asian countries meet in Sweden to discuss the ins and outs of strategic environmental assessment in their countries. When they return to their countries they carry out a project for a year contributing to SEA development. During the meetings in Sweden we give presentations on our approach and experiences. We share lessons learned and coach delegates on their projects. This creates a win-win situation: we build up a network of environmental assessment experts in our partner countries, they receive support to achieve a good approach in their country. As a result, we have collaborated with alumni of this training programme in countries such as Mozambique, Uganda and Cambodia to strengthen strategic environmental assessment. Although the Swedish programme will terminate in 2018, we hope to continue to work with these experts in the future.

The development of a strategy for the delta of the Ayeyarwady river is an important topic within Dutch-Myanmar cooperation. The Ayeyarwady (better known as the Irrawaddy) is the largest and most important river in the country and flows through a delta susceptible to the impact of climate change, inhabited by 5 million people. In 2017 we collaborated on an 'SEA inclusive Integrated Ayeyarwady Delta Strategy', as coach. Various environmental assessment principles were integrated from the outset, such as substantial participation of interested parties and the development of alternatives. Subsequently, two alternatives were distinguished: 'grey' focused on building infrastructure to reduce the risk of flooding and 'green' focused on controlled flooding. The latter is inspired by experience with the Room for the River concept in the Netherlands. The starting point for the next phase in 2018 is 'grey' where necessary and 'green' where possible.

We have entered a new agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the period 2017-2022. We will continue what we were doing, and add new activities. For example, our collaboration with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) will be extended to all countries eligible for Private Sector Development funds. Also, we will intensify our work with investment and credit organisations in the Netherlands (for example, with FMO) and worldwide, with the World Bank. We are collaborating with WWF and IUCN to strengthen environmental assessment to ensure sufficient attention is paid to biodiversity and ecosystem services in policy and planning.

We also have the honour of supporting the Ministry's embassies and directorates for the next five years by advising on sustainability. This mainly concerns weightier strategic dossiers, such as those on controversial issues on which ministries or scientists find it difficult to agree.

We collaborate with embassies in almost all partner countries. What this entails varies from contributing ideas about the application of environmental assessment for Dutch investments and advising on the sustainability of embassy programmes, to responding to requests from consulates to lend support to the local government. In 2017, for example, the NCEA and the embassy in Mali together prepared a workshop for the Planetary Security conference in The Hague on the topic of developing sustainable scenarios for issues such as malnutrition, unemployment and climate change and the associated security, radicalisation and migration.

We prepared a high-level meeting for Senegal, on dealing transparently with fossil energy sources. The embassy in Senegal sees environmental assessment as an important instrument for ensuring such transparency.