Shortcomings and short cuts

Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) can be expected to have growing relevance for climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in a number of countries. EIAs are considered to be useful tools to strengthen provisions for adaptation measures such as climate-proofing in development projects, ¹ and, under the rules of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), host countries can require project developers to produce an EIA if they believe a mitigation project could have significant environmental impacts. ² To date, Sri Lanka has registered seven CDM projects – a low number compared to other Asian countries but higher than many participating countries outside the region. If mitigation and adaptation projects are scaled up in Sri Lanka, considerable efforts – by citizens, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the government – will be needed to ensure that the criteria used to assess the environmental integrity of these projects is robust and open to public oversight.