Strategic environmental assessment opportunities and risks for Arctic offshore energy planning and development

Bram Noble, Skye Ketilson, Alec Aitken and Greg Poelzer

Marine Policy, 2013, vol. 39, issue C, 296-302

Abstract: Canada's Arctic environment is rich in hydrocarbon resources. As international attention turns to the Arctic to meet global energy demands there is increased recognition of the need to advance upstream impact assessment and decision-making to plan for energy development. There have been several applications of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) over the past decade in the international offshore energy sector; however, SEA remains underdeveloped offshore in comparison to project-based environmental impact assessment and unchartered territory in Canada's Arctic. This paper examines stakeholder perceptions of the opportunities and risks of advancing SEA for offshore energy planning and development in Canada's Beaufort Sea. Results indicate a number of perceived opportunities for SEA, including improved regulatory efficiency, better regional baselines and planning practices, an opportunity to assess cumulative effects, more meaningful project-based assessment, and greater certainty for industry stakeholders. At the same time there are a number of perceived risks, including foregoing anticipated development opportunities, the loss of flexibility in decision making, adding another layer of bureaucracy, and the added uncertainties of a novel approach. The implications of these findings for advancing SEA in the offshore energy sector are discussed.

Keywords: Strategic environmental assessment; Environmental impact assessment; Offshore energy; Oil and gas development; Beaufort sea; Canadian Arctic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X12002527
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:39:y:2013:i:c:p:296-302

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2012.12.011

Access Statistics for this article

Marine Policy is currently edited by Eddie Brown

More articles in Marine Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().