Practice of the integration of climate change considerations into environmental impact assessment for policy in China

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment for policy (Policy EIA) is an important and effective means to couple with climate change (CC) mitigation and adaptation during the policy-making process by systematically integrating CC considerations. As the world's largest carbon emitter and a member of the Parties of the Paris Agreement, China plays a vital role in reducing and neutralizing greenhouse gases emissions. To demonstrate the determined attitude and progressive actions to confront global warming, in China, 17 pilot Policy EIA cases were initiated from 2021 to 2023, where CC considerations are required to be integrated into Policy EIA. Adapted from the best available international practices, 22 focusing and streamlined criteria covering CC mitigation and adaptation are assembled to prudentially scrutinize CC considerations in these pilot cases. In addition, direct content analysis is applied to identify and analyze text references related to the evaluation criteria, and correlation analysis is employed to refine and validate the research findings. Overall, the results indicate that while climatic factors are considered to some extent, the integration of CC considerations into Policy EIA is in an unsatisfactory manner, with dissimilar performance across different subjects and categories. Besides, much more effort was put into mitigation consideration than into adaptation consideration. Moreover, there is a lack of applicable quantitative methodologies to measure CC impacts, while the absence of accessible, robust, and quality-assured data has become a major obstacle to CC assessment. Correspondingly, some recommendations are proposed to further improve the integration of CC considerations into Policy EIA. The research framework provides a reasonable and effective approach to evaluating the integration of CC considerations into Policy EIA, with potential applicability worldwide.