For the first time sustainability including climate change mitigation and transformation to a sustainable energy supply has been fully fledged incorporated in the guidelines for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a spatial plan published by the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment. The spatial plan covers a region in the North of the Netherlands (Eemsmond) and includes two big sea harbours, 1 city and several villages, several big fossil fuelled power plants and wind farms. So far, only effects of and mitigation measures for harmful emissions having clear legal thresholds were included in the Commission’s guidelines. Deducing a threshold concentration for CO2 from the widely accepted 2 degrees warming maximum the case was made to include CO2 emissions (and its mitigation) in the EIA for the Regional Spatial plan for the Eemsmond (“Structuurvisie Eemsmond-Delfzijl”). Read more …
