Using SEA to mainstream sustainable development: some lessons from Scottish practice

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is now a requirement for virtually all new Scottish public sector strategies, plans and programmes (SPPs), whether of a statutory or of a voluntary nature, which are deemed likely to have significant environmental effects. This major extension of the EU SEA Directive by the Scottish Government has been deliberately designed to mainstream sustainable development in Scottish policy formulation. The paper reviews current progress in this direction, raising some issues of principle and practice in the use of SEA before considering how SEA can be combined with environmental modeling techniques to deliver the challenging climate change targets adopted by Scottish public bodies.