The COVID-19 pandemic has gravely impacted all aspects of health, government, society, industry, and our interaction with each other. Environmental and social governance have not been exempted, and the pandemic has drastically challenged the way governments and other actors ensure that environmental and social safeguards continue to protect ourselves and our environment. Environmental licensing and enforcement agencies have had to adapt to fluid circumstances to continue project review and approval, ensure stakeholder consultation, and perform compliance monitoring and enforcement so that agency staff and communities remain safe.
Despite the challenges, environmental ministries have adapted to make their programs more efficient and effective in a number of areas ranging from virtual stakeholder consultation to remote compliance monitoring and to improving connections with communities and indigenous peoples through safe interactions.
A central question is how to continue to inform and engage stakeholders in decision making for projects that impact their lives and livelihoods, when most countries now prohibit large gatherings and individual interactions are limited to prevent exposure and transmission. The easy answer is to put data online and wait for the community to read and respond. Unfortunately, that seldom, if ever, offers meaningful consultation and completely fails where communities have limited or no access to the internet, cannot afford computers, or use alternative channels to get information.
One successful outreach effort at an education project in El Salvador combined WhatsApp with a digital consultation tool called Moodle to share information. Project proponents followed up with individual phone calls using the local school’s phone list.
In Chile, the Environmental Evaluation Service (SEA) is disseminating messages through local radio stations to replace door-to-door visits, open houses, and workshops. This keeps communities informed and guides them toward existing paperless transparency mechanisms.
Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implemented a comprehensive virtual communication plan to ensure stakeholder engagement in the development of their new Single Use Plastic Ban. The plan ensures engagement through the EPA website, Facebook Live events, newspaper articles, and TV and radio shows.
Likewise, COVID-19 presents challenges for agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with regulations and licenses when they cannot physically travel or inspect operations first-hand. Enforcement agencies are trying temporary solutions that are often leading to long-term efficiencies that may become permanent procedural improvements.
Peru’s Environmental Evaluation and Enforcement Agency (OEFA) has had success with remote monitoring by using satellite imagery and through distant observations by inspectors or the local community. To facilitate citizen monitoring, both OEFA and Colombia’s National Agency for Environmental Licensing (ANLA) have improved online reporting mechanisms so they can better engage the community as watchdogs and to provide a mechanism for violating companies to regularly report on efforts to return to compliance and improve their procedures.
The IDB’s Environmental and Social Solutions Unit (ESG) has increased reliance on remote meetings and local consultants to verify that IDB funded projects meet environmental and social commitments. ESG has also used technology such as 360° cameras and virtual reality video to supervise projects.
In addition, authorities have had to show flexibility while still abiding by legal mandates on pollution control. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Chile’s Superintendency of the Environment (SMA), and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have all experienced social mistrust as flexibility has been offered on deadlines, reporting requirements, and penalties. However, they have all continued to strictly apply the law in situations that could cause harm or result from criminal activities, and are phasing out the flexibility as conditions return to normal. This type of discretion can be very important to industry, but communication and clear expectations are critical for the community to adapt to new expectations and ensure everyone´s health and safety.
| The IDB is conducting a benchmarking review of how countries have made changes to procedures, standards, regulations and/or laws related to their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first step will be a regional survey followed by a series of interviews to collect compressive data on what types of adaptations are needed. |
A few central themes transverse the challenges to both licensing and enforcement under the COVID-19 pandemic. Mechanisms must be established to ensure citizen participation in new ways, so the community is involved in decision making. Individuals should have access to complaint mechanisms and be empowered to help the government identify problems with environmental and social conditions and to identify potential violations of standards and permit conditions. Both new and existing technology should be employed to help overcome these challenges, much of which can make systems more efficient and effective even after a return to normal conditions.
Legal modifications may be required to adapt to these challenges and should be embedded into procedures for governments, communities, and industry. Finally, sharing the challenges and successes throughout the region can help countries skip ahead quickly by building on models implemented by counterparts and adapting them for their local circumstances.
The ESG Unit held a series of virtual meetings on Environmental and Social Licensing and Enforcement During COVID-19. The objectives were to share best practices, policy changes, and technical advances applicable to environmental and social licensing and enforcement as they confront challenges related to COVID-19. We invite you to see the recordings of the topics of your interest:
- Virtual Stakeholder Consultation
- Ensuring Socioenvironmental Compliance from a Social Distance
- Enforcement Discretion in Moments of Crisis
- Institutionalizing Lessons Learned from Covid-19
- Interactions with Indigenous People during a Pandemic
We will continue the dialogue with another series of meetings with the Regional Policy Dialogue on Environmental Licensing and Enforcement in November 2020.
Leave a Reply