IEMA publishes updated EIA guidance on assessing GHG emissions

IEMA has published updated guidance to help environmental impact assessment (EIA) practitioners better understand, record and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from major developments.

The guidance has been developed by an IEMA Impact Assessment Working Group on GHG Assessment, including a wide range of organisations representing leading practitioners from across the UK.

It provides essential guidance to assist professionals with GHG emissions assessment, mitigation, and reporting in statutory and non-statutory EIA.

Through iterative design, and the application of the mitigation hierarchy, the guidance will help lead to reduced GHG emissions from developments.

Speaking yesterday, Dr Rufus Howard, Impact Assessment Policy Lead at IEMA, said: “As highlighted by the IPCC report published today, urgent and wide-ranging GHG reductions are required to meet the decarbonisation trajectory towards a net-zero economy.

“EIA has a key role to play in assessing the effects of major infrastructure proposals in terms of their impact on the climate through GHG emissions.

“I am pleased to see IEMA's continued focus on this critical topic with updated guidance on this area based on leading practitioners' insights from the past five years' practice.”

The new guidance is a revision of the 2017 IEMA guidance on Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Evaluating their Significance

It complements IEMA’s latest guide on Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation, published in 2020, and builds on climate change mitigation and EIA overarching principles.