Climate Change and SEA
Moderator: Ray Clark
Presentations
Climate Change: The Ultimate Cumulative Impact?
Presenter(s): Michael Smith
Climate change has recently emerged as an important topic in EIA. In the United States, analysis of climate change impacts in NEPA documents is a fairly recent development. Many NEPA documents today contain no such analysis. This presentation will review the current status of litigation related to climate change and NEPA, and discuss examples of early attempts to address climate change in NEPA documents.
Influences and Effects of Climate Change on CEA
Presenter(s): Ray Clark
Climate change will have multiple effects on the environment, economy, national security, agriculture, trade and commerce. In November 2007, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration must prepare an EIS to assess greenhouse gas emissions attributable to new automobile fuel efficiency standards. Accordingly, policy and science implications for federal agencies addressing environmental and other effects will be summarized, as well as the consequences of emerging legislation and analytical expectations of the courts, Congress and public.
Role of CEA in Addressing Climate Change
Presenter(s): Norval Collins
The need to incorporate climate change into the EIA process is becoming more urgent, but a number of road blocks are identified. The potential for CEA to play a critical initial role is made based on minimal change to the overall process, simpler guidelines, and ease of regulatory buy-in. The pros and cons of using CEA to further incorporation of climate change in the EIA process are identified, with experience drawn from the IAIA climate change list serve.
Climate-Biodiversity Interactions: Assessment of the Effects of Climate Variability on Biodiversity Conservation in Relation to Communities’ Livelihoods in Lake Manyara Sub-Basin
Presenter(s): Madaka Tumbo, Emilian Kihwele
Shifts in the extremes of climatic parameters such as temperature and moisture will have impacts on biodiversity, although it is difficult to predict to what extent because the ability of many species or ecosystems to respond to change in climatic extremes is unknown. Mitigation and adaptation is urgently required to reduce climate change impacts on biodiversity. Many of the people most vulnerable to climate change and its impacts are also those that are most dependent on biodiversity.