ABSTRACT

The Spanish government has made concerted efforts to simplify environmental assessment processes. In the case of the ‘simplified’ Strategic Environmental Assessment approach, this has been done with the objective of streamlining processes and resources, so that plans and programmes, or their modifications, that are considered to potentially have insignificant or negligible environmental effects are not subject to a full assessment. In contrast, the recently introduced ‘environmental effects determination procedure’ for renewable projects has the purpose of speeding up project approval processes in response to energy security challenges with a resulting potential risk of weakening assessment procedures and debilitating environmental protection. Simplification attempts should not only comply with legal mandates but proactively foster environmentally-sound, participatory and transparent decisions.

摘要

西班牙政府齐心协力简化环境评估流程。在“简化的”战略环境评估方法的情况下，这样做的目的是简化流程和资源，因此被认为可能具有微不足道或可忽略的环境影响的计划和方案或其修改不受进行全面评估。相比之下，最近针对可再生能源项目引入的“环境影响确定程序”旨在加快项目审批流程，以应对能源安全挑战，从而带来削弱评估程序和削弱环境保护的潜在风险。