The 2022 IAIA International Symposium program is available here
Abstract
Recent scholarship on climate change (CC) and impact assessment (IA) has identified four key characteristics of climate change that must be centred in IA theory and practice. This presentation reflects on recent Canadian experience to address two of these from the perspective of how IA is currently theorized and conduced in the offshore oil and gas (O&G) sector. First, the global and multi-sectoral nature of emissions sources means IA for the O&G sector must consider not just scope 1 or 2 emissions, but also scope 3, which is a significant challenge given the complexity of post-production supply chain management. Second, the need for adaptation and compensation regimes for offshore oil and gas in particular has been challenging to implement, given the difficulties of local populations to access such means of address. Their livelihoods often experience both the impacts of CC most directly, and are also disproportionately impacted by accidents (e.g., oil spills) from offshore O&G developments. Planning for such accidents constitutes a significant aspect of IAs for this sector. This paper makes some suggestions based on recent Canadian experience that may stimulate dialogue at this conference in light of growing South African interest in expanding offshore operations.
Citation
Stewart, I. (2022). Offshore oil and gas development in the Canadian context. IAIA International Symposium. Cape Town, South Africa, 26-28 September 2022.
Related Blog Post
Stewart, I. (13 December 2022). Impact Assessment, Climate Change, and Environmental Effects Monitoring: Collaborations and Conference Presentations. EIUI Blog. https://eiui.ca/impact-assessment-climate-change-and-environmental-effects-monitoring-collaborations-and-conference-presentations/