Sustainability Appraisal of the Yunnan Sustainable Development Action Plan (YSDAP)

1. Sustainability Appraisal of the Yunnan Sustainable Development Action Plan (YSDAP) Dr Jeremy Richardson & Dr Steve Smith Yunnan Environmental Development Programme (YEDP)

2. Sustainability Appraisal - Looking for Good • SA identifies and evaluates the economic, social and environmental implications of an action – the three dimensions of sustainable development • Proactive - generally applied to plans and policies (also often applied to projects) • Influences the plan/policy preparation process • Builds on EIA which has traditionally focussed on the final decision (i.e. do no or minimise harm)

3. Sustainability Appraisal • Moves away from a sectoral approach to plan and policy making, and Instead • Identifies opportunities for integration between economic, social and environmental objectives as well as instances when trade-offs between objectives may be necessary • Sustainability Appraisal (SA) is a fast emerging area of interest in public sector decision-making • Increasing number of governments and inter-governmental organisations developing and experimenting with various approaches to SA with the aim of improving decision-making and promoting sustainable development

4. YEDP • Provincial Government Project with DFID support • aims to achieve three key outputs: • Output 1: A strengthened Yunnan Sustainable Development Action Plan (YSDAP) • Output 2: Development of an Integrated Strategy to address environment-poverty linkages and assist YPG in adopting participatory and gender-sensitive approaches to development; and • Output 3: Implementation of three pilot projects to demonstrate sustainable approaches to environment-poverty challenges

5. Step One: Assemble SA team Step Two: Scope and develop the evidence base Step Three: Develop SA objectives and indicators Step Four: Appraise policy / plan options and proposals Step Five: Finalise SA report SA Process In Yunnan

6. SA of YSDAP(YPG statutory process)

7. SA of 1st draft undertaken in stakeholder workshop SA of YSDAP

8. SA Results • Observations • Predominantly positive impacts (SD Action Plan) • Some uncertainty of impacts and too large a number of no impact score • SA needs to be more critical • YSDAP needs to acknowledge potential conflicts between objectives • Conflicts need to be mitigated • Some objectives need to be changed (resource use and conservation) • Missing areas – Climate change, gender, minorities • More emphasis on social development • Fewer more focussed and concrete actions

9. Promoting SA in Yunnan • YEDP drafting guidance on applying SA to YPG policies and plans • Guidance incorporates the requirements of the EIA Law and draft SEPA Technical Guidelines for plan EIA • SA could help fulfil the need for Category 1 plans to include “explanation on the environmental impact in the plan” • Most SEA systems address economic and social issues to some degree

10. Promoting SA in Yunnan • Issues to consider in developing guidance • UK has adopted an objectives led approach to SEA / SA • UK has incorporated SEA requirements into SA process • Where is the boundary between plan EIA and project EIA? • How much baseline information is required for plan EIA? • Defining the no action alternative? • Applying the “scientific concept of development” to SA impact scoring • Scaling up representative participation to the strategic level

11. http://www.yedp.org Dr Jeremy Richardson Programme Management Office YEDP 27 Xi Yuan Nan Lu Kunming 650032 P.R. China Email: Jeremy.Richardson@scottwilson.com Tel: 00 86 871 416 0414 Fax: 00 86 871 419 6920