Sustainable System

This assignment discusses the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, differences between EIA in South Australia and New South Wales, pitfalls in EIA practice, and the use of soft tools as a strategy to reduce car usage.

Running head: SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
Sustainable system
name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
“Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil”...........................................................................2
Differences between the EIA in South Australia and New South Wales........................................3
Pitfalls in EIA practice.....................................................................................................................4
Soft tool as a strategy.......................................................................................................................5
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7

2SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
Introduction
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) can be described as the process of evaluating
the environmental impacts that are likely to happen due to a proposed project or an
infrastructural development. The EIA takes into account of the human health impacts, cultural
impacts and socio -economic impacts that are both adverse and beneficial (Weston 2014). This
assignment is based on the EIA and the soft tools; the assignment will discuss on an article that
has been provided in the class; comparison of the steps of EIA in the two chosen states; how the
practitioners over the various pitfalls in EIA; a development activity and an EIA conducted on
the same; strategy used to control and reduce the usage of an inefficient car.
“Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil”
The world today is experiencing scarcity in energy and this huge problem is related to the
resources and population. While in the recent decade it has been seen that there has been a
considerable amount of discussion in media as well as academia regarding the impact on the
environmental due to human activity. The changes in the environment can be seen in terms of
changes in the biodiversity, climate change and less amount of attention is paid to the
diminishing resources for the humans. The most common phenomenon is the gradual
diminishing condition of the oil reserves that are commonly referred to as the "peak oil" and the
reason is that the global production appears to have reached a condition where it is declining.
Moreover, there are other issues that are continuing to rise and this has impacted to a greater
extent so much that they are called as "peak everything". Another vital issue is the economic
definition of efficiency is not consistent. several authors and researchers have highlighted that a
factor called the energy use has not been used in the economist production equations. This factor

3SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
is far more important than the technology, labour or capital in explaining the industrial
production increase in Germany, Japan and USA (Hall and Day 2009).
Current scenario is Australia- Australia is tackling the energy scarcity by having in place
a price safety net, stringer protection has been brought in place for the energy consumers, more
reliable electricity by retailer reliability obligation and underwriting the new generation
investments (Energy.gov.au 2019).
Differences between the EIA in South Australia and New South Wales
EIA in South Australia- There are two main acts that govern the EIA in South Australia
like Development Act 1993 and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
1999. These acts set out the processes that needs to be followed and it includes a consultation
with the responsible territory minister and the state territory minister along with it public
consultation is also required. However, it is important to mention that the only the relevant
impacts that have a national importance triggers the process of EIA. Once the action is declared
to be controlled action, Minister can have the access to the matter in one of the five ways.
Through an accredited process, public enquiry, environmental impact statement, public
environment report, assessment on the preliminary report. The environmental protection agency
is trialling the Environmental Impact Assessment which is based on a risk based framework
(Lawhandbook.sa.gov.au 2019). The main purpose is to simplify as well as streamline the
assessment of the assessment process. The main elements of the trail EIA framework are as
follows: screening criteria- identification of the activities that have a high amount of inherent
environmental risk and moreover it requires a detailed assessment; Environmental objectives-
identification of the proper environmental objectives that will be essential for the proposed
development; evaluation criteria- an appropriate environmental criteria is selected or the factors

4SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
are selected for assessing the officer and also consider the same for evaluation. Lastly, to
determine whether the environmental objectives are properly met (Epa.sa.gov.au 2019).
EIA in New South Wales- once the plans are set as well as drawn up, the private
developer can then proceed with the plans so that they can see the types of the developments that
are allowed in a particular area. The environmental impact statement is conducted before the
consent of the local council is considered. this section is covered by the part 4 of the
environmental planning and assessment act. If for example the project is a public project, then
the governmental authority is to be called as a determining authority. The determining authority
has the responsibility to consider the environmental impact as well as whether the EIS is
necessary or not. Therefore, if the EIS is done then the minister will be responsible rather than
the local council and furthermore, it will decide whether the project will be approved or not. it is
important to mention that in all the cases the environmental impact assessment is considered
(Herinst.org 2019).
Pitfalls in EIA practice
Lack of perspective- it is often seen that the indigenous people, non- governmental
organizations, proponents and the environment specialist will often the interpret the acceptability
and the significance of the proposed actions and impacts in a different way. Thus, it is important
to mention that the EIA documents and the EIA processes must include the accommodate and
reflect the different types of the perspectives. While it is important to highlight that the
judgemental activities like monitoring, compensation, mitigation, proposal acceptability,
evaluation of the alternatives, interpretation, and scoping must be interpreted from the
perspective of both the affected and the interested party involved in the process. The consultation

5SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
programs must also be tailored so that it can cater to the perspectives and the needs
(Conferences.iaia.org 2019).
False economies and artificial timelines- A well- structured and well- focussed EIA
process can be economically and expeditiously executed. There are only a few occasions where
the hard deadlines lines are seen along with the severe resource constraints, emergency
situations. Such situations necessitate a streamlined, broad level, selective, abbreviated EIA
process. However, it is important to mention that there are limitations. Sometimes it is seen that
the budget and artificial constraints are imposed at the beginning or when the project is taking
more time than the expected. therefore, these constraints result into a public consultation and
truncated agency procedures, superficial, inadequate analyses. The most common result of the
artificial limits is that the it is consuming more time than usual, and the approval process and the
review is costly. Which all together leads to a greater likelihood of failure of the process
(Conferences.iaia.org 2019).
Soft tool as a strategy
It is often seen that that cars are used by people to commute for the shorter distances. The
probable reasons that the people share are the issue of lack of sufficient public transport, the
public fares are more than usual, the lack of comfort when commuting, the urge to move as
quickly as possible to the designated destination, waiting in cue for the public transport, fuel
prices are less and the access to the most needed thigs and facilities takes time. It is important to
note that the reason is itself pushing the people to use cars instead of using a public transport
services. However, it is important to mention that the car is mostly used for the short distance
travel and it is generally considered to be less efficient (Alberini et al. 2018). It is important to
mention that the soft tools like persuasion is one of the best strategy when it comes to tackle and

6SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
change the public behaviour. People can be persuaded but that does not mean each and every
single will be caught hold and persuaded to not to use their car for short travel. While this sort of
strategy is not applicable in a developed country which has high GDP and people can afford to
spend money to buy cars and oil as well (Antweiler and Gulati 2016).
Strategy- Therefore, this calls for a strategy that can actively reduce the usage of cars for
a shorter distance. The first and the foremost importance is to lay emphasis on the usage of the
public transport because the it will be efficient and at the same time it will less polluting in
comparison to a single car. The public transport system must be designed in a way so that it does
not choke the lanes and roads and at the same time, the frequency of the public transport systems
must be made frequent. There are many public transport systems like the trams, buses, electric
buses, trains, and shuttle cars that can pool passengers (Black 2018). It is important to mention
that such public transport systems must be integrated in a way so that it can integrate the entire
transport network. The availability of the good quality, comfortable and reasonable fare system
will definitely promote the usage of the public transport for short commutation. The availability
and the connectivity of the public transport system will in itself play a major role in the
increasing its usage by the general public. All other developed nations like Australia, have well
connected public transport system. Buses can be used to commute to anywhere in the city, trams
can be used to travel to the roads that are visited the most. Thus, the availability of public
transport sufficiently will act as a persuasion for the general public (White 2016).

7SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
Reference
Alberini, A., Bareit, M., Filippini, M. and Martinez-Cruz, A.L., 2018. The impact of emissions-
based taxes on the retirement of used and inefficient vehicles: The case of Switzerland. Journal
of Environmental Economics and Management, 88, pp.234-258.
Antweiler, W. and Gulati, S., 2016. Frugal cars or frugal drivers? How carbon and fuel taxes
influence the choice and use of cars. How Carbon and Fuel Taxes Influence the Choice and Use
of Cars (May 11, 2016).
Black, J., 2018. Urban transport planning: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Conferences.iaia.org, 2019. pitfalls in EIA. [online] Conferences.iaia.org. Available at:
https://conferences.iaia.org/2017/final-papers/Fonseca,%20Alberto%20-%20Promises%20and
%20Pitfalls%20of%20Simplified%20EIA.pdf [Accessed 24 Apr. 2019].
Energy.gov.au, 2019. Affordable, reliable power for Australians | energy.gov.au. [online]
Energy.gov.au. Available at: https://www.energy.gov.au/government-priorities/affordable-
reliable-power-australians [Accessed 24 Apr. 2019].
Epa.sa.gov.au, 2019. Our work | EPA. [online] Epa.sa.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.epa.sa.gov.au/business_and_industry/environmental_planning/our-work [Accessed
24 Apr. 2019].
Hall, C.A. and Day, J.W., 2009. Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil: In the 1970s a
rising world population and the finite resources available to support it were hot topics. Interest
faded—but it's time to take another look. American scientist, 97(3), pp.230-237.

8SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
Herinst.org, 2019. Environmental Impact Assessment in NSW. [online] Herinst.org. Available at:
http://www.herinst.org/envcrisis/eis/planning/nsw.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2019].
Lawhandbook.sa.gov.au, 2019. Environmental Impact Assessment. [online]
Lawhandbook.sa.gov.au. Available at: https://lawhandbook.sa.gov.au/ch19s06s01.php [Accessed
24 Apr. 2019].
Weston, J., 2014. Planning and environmental impact assessment in practice. Routledge.
White, P.R., 2016. Public transport: its planning, management and operation. Routledge.