The Quality of Environmental Impact Statements of Waste

Incineration Projects in FinlandIAIA’07 Seoul, Korea, 5th June 2007

Kimmo Jalava

Environmental Science

University of Jyväskylä

Background of the study

• Multidisciplinary research project: Effectiveness of EIA

• Law, politics and environment

• Funded by Academy of Finland

• Quality as a part of efectiveness

• European Commission’s Guidance on EIA: EIS review

europa.eu.int/comm/environment/pubs/home.htm

Method

• EC’s EIS review: general instructions + 143 questions

• 15 environmental impact statements of waste incineration projects

• 2 reviewers

• Two-step review: first independently then combined

Results

• Generally the EISs were satisfactory or good• The review areas by the result from the best to

the worst:1. Description of the environment2. Presentational issues3. Description of the environmental impacts4. Description of the project5. Mitigation measures and follow up6. Non-technical summary

Experiences from the study

• EC’s review questions brought systemacy to the review and the reviewers gained seemingly similar review results

• The need for technical expertise cannot be overlooked

• The importance of presentational issues cannot be overrated

Thank you!