Zsuzsa Banhalmi-Zakar

How strategic environmental assessment can inform lenders about potential environmental risks

In this paper, we explore the potential for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to be a useful tool for banks to manage environmental risks and inform lending decisions. SEA is an environmental assessment tool that was developed to assist strategic-level decision-makers, such as policy-makers, planners, government authorities and environmental practitioners in improving developmental outcomes, aiming to facilitate the transition to sustainable development. We propose that SEA may also be a valuable tool for banks because it has the capacity to provide information about environmental risks at a time when it can be used as an input to bank lending decisions, which can assist banks in making lending decisions with better environmental outcomes. For these reasons, we argue that in some circumstances, and particularly for project finance transactions, SEA may be a more useful environmental assessment tool for lenders than environmental impact assessment, which many banks are currently relying on to help assess and mitigate environmental risks. Furthermore, we suggest that the use of SEA by banks would contribute to the sustainability goals of SEA.

The impact of bank lending on the environmental outcomes of urban development

ABSTRACT Financial institutions play an important role as financiers of development, yet little is known about the key players; what processes they employ, how they make decisions and whether the environmental outcomes of development feature in finance decisions. This paper provides some answers as to how banks perceive and deal with the environmental impacts of development drawing on the literature and a case study of development lending practices in Australia and Europe, in the pre-Global Financial Crisis era. The banks studied financed a diverse range of residential, commercial, and industrial, transport and social infrastructure developments through different schemes. The schemes used determined if and how environmental issues translated into financial risks and opportunities and impacted finance decisions. The banks relied heavily on development/planning or environmental approvals as well as assessments by non-environmental experts. Delays in obtaining approvals posed a significant risk to financiers and, consequently, to developers. Exposure to reputational risk was a major concern for the Australian bank, but fines for breaching environmental regulations were not regarded as a threat. Several recommendations are made to planning and environmental practitioners, regulators and banks on advancing practices that could improve environmental outcomes of urban development.

Have Australia's tourism strategies incorporated climate change?

ABSTRACT Tourism is widely acknowledged as a key contributor to climate change, but it remains unclear how the tourism industry has been planning for climate change in practice. This paper conducts the most comprehensive critical review of Australias tourism policy and planning documents to date. The paper explores the complex challenges posed by climate change to tourism and how tourism policy has been adapting over a 15-year period. Drawing on a longitudinal data-set of 477 Australian tourism policy and planning documents at the national, state, regional and local level, this research analyses the strategic discourse on climate change using content analysis and bibliometrics. The findings reveal opportunities, challenges and strategies for the tourism industry to contribute to the sustainable management of climate change. Opportunities include developing more “green” products, while strategies include establishing and/or participating in collaborative climate change schemes and strengthening dialogue surrounding climate change to aid the implementation of sustainable practices. Future research should consider the broader policy-making environment, such as the stakeholders, power and interest dynamics when analysing tourism strategies in relation to climate change.

Evolution or revolution: where next for impact assessment?

ABSTRACT Impact assessment (IA) has become one of the most prevalent environmental policy instruments today. Its introduction under the National Environmental Policy Act (US) in 1969 was revolutionary. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that such a widely used tool has received its share of criticism, including that it fails to meet some of its fundamental goals. Over the last fifty years, IA has broadened in scope and application and embraced new techniques. It has followed evolved, but has not changed fundamentally. We believe that IA must continue to change to meet the societal and environmental challenges of the 21st century. But will it be enough for IA to progress through incremental change (evolution), or is a complete overhaul of impact assessment (revolution) needed? We provide some ideas as to what ‘evolution’ and ‘revolution’ may look like, but rather then offering a definitive way forward now, we invite stakeholders to present their thoughts and suggestions at the IAIA19 Annual Conference in Brisbane, which carries the same theme as the title of this article.

Book Review: Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment by Glasson et al. (2012)

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