The Federal State Issues New Guidelines for Environmental Assessment

On November 30, 2023, the former Secretariat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Innovation of the former Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development published Resolution 23/2023 in the Official Gazette. This Resolution approved the "Guidelines for Preparing Environmental Impact Assessments - 2023 Edition" and the "Guide on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment."

 

Moreover, on November 23, 2023, the former National Directorate of Environmental Assessment published Provision 1/2023 in the Official Gazette, approving the "Guidelines for Approaching an Strategic Environmental Assessment."

 

1. The Guidelines

 

These parameters were originally established in the "Guide for Preparing Environmental Impact Assessment- 2019 Edition" and in the "Guide for Preparing a Strategic Environmental Assessment" (Resolution SGAyDS  337/2019).

Regarding the commitments Argentina took on, and because it is necessary to incorporate the regulations of 2019—such as Law 27520 on Minimum Requirements for Adaptation and Mitigation of Global Climate Change and the Escazu Agreement—both Guides aim to update the criteria applicable to environmental impact evaluation processes (EIA) and the public participation instance.

 

1.1 Guide for the preparation of Environmental Impact Assessment - 2023 Edition

 

The 2023 edition significantly amends the 2019 edition by incorporating climate change matters to EIA processes. This shows in different sections of the EIA:

 

1. the baselines,
2. assessment based on climate risk analysis,
3. the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) with emphasis on Adaptive Environmental Management (AMM) and specific adaptation and mitigation actions.

 

The guide proposes two main approaches for including climate change in the EIA: the adaptation and the mitigation approaches.

 

The former assesses how climate change may affect the project, through a dynamic management that considers climate scenarios and risks. Adaptation involves measures that make operational process resilient and flexible, incorporating adaptive environmental management.

 

The latter focuses on the project's influence on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It emphasizes the importance of reducing direct and indirect emissions at all stages of the project. The environmental impact study must analyze actions to prevent, reduce, or increase GHG absorption, seeking to minimize environmental impact and promoting sustainable practices through all phases of the project.

 

1.2 Guidance on public participation in environmental assessment

 

Public participation is a process that allows the interests, needs, and priority concerns of people to be considered in governmental decision-making. Ultimately, this democratizes public policies and increases their effectiveness. Participation is based on the right of access to public information.

 

The guide proposes different mechanisms, such as: dialogue roundtables to create relationships and receive information on concerns, on-line consultations to inform and facilitate extended participation, mediation for agreements on controversial issues, and participatory environmental monitoring committees.

 

In the context of the EIA, the guide on public participation establishes responsibilities for proponents: identifying stakeholders, interests, and disclosing the project appropriately and in a way that can be understood.

 

The guide includes a section on the processes of consultation with Indigenous Peoples and establishes a series of principles to implement them properly. Thus, it recommends the consultation is:

1. prior
2. free
3. informed
4. in good faith
5. adequate and accessible
6. through authorities and institutions representative of Indigenous Peoples
7. systematic and transparent.

 

2. Guidelines for the approach to Strategic Environmental Assessment

 

According to Provision 1/2023, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (EAE) is a tool for integrating sustainable development objectives into the planning process and public policy decision-making.

 

While the EAE is conducted at the strategic planning and policy levels, the EIA is conducted at the level of specific projects. EAE focuses on medium- and long-term planning of policies, plans, and programs, allowing to assess the impact of strategic decisions on the environment over time and for a specific geographic region.

 

To prepare the EAE of a policy, plan, or program, the Provision refers to the four phases in the "Guide for Preparing a Strategic Environmental Assessment", approved by Resolution SGAyDS3 337/2019[1] .

The Guide includes two approaches to applying EAE:

 

1. Top-down approach: based on strategies. It consists of detecting and consolidating the strategic goals that allow framing the application instruments that will stem from the policy, plan, or program evaluated simultaneously with the strategic design.

 

2. Bottom-up approach: based on the EIA. It involves detecting and analyzing what may cause significant adverse effects on the environment or health and what promotes significant improvements in other variables of the context by weighing their value or significance.

 

The bottom-up approach favors creating scenarios, especially in the case of cumulative impacts, resulting from the successive, incremental and/or combined effects of an activity or project when added to the effects of other existing or planned undertakings.