This chapter introduces Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and its vital role in shaping sustainable development during the energy transition. SEA looks beyond individual projects to assess the long-term environmental and social impacts of policies, plans, and programs (PPPs)—filling the gaps that project-level EIAs can’t address.
It explains how SEA helps compare strategic alternatives, anticipate cumulative impacts, and strengthen decision-making through early public and institutional engagement. The chapter also highlights SEA’s flexibility and discusses common challenges such as implementation, capacity building, and stakeholder participation.
1.1 Why We Need SEA
1.2 What is SEA and How Does It Differ from Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA)
1.3 SEA and Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA)
1.4 Basic Objectives and Principles For SEA
1.5 Impacts-Led Versus Objectives-Led SEA
1.6 The Relationship Between SEA and the PPP Process
1.7 Scale and Time Required for an SEA
1.8 Costs of SEA
1.9 Who Should Carry Out SEA?
1.10 Engaging with Stakeholders
1.11 Building Capacity for SEA
1.12 Effectiveness of SEA
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) helps governments look at the bigger picture when making policies, plans, or programs (PPP) that could affect the environment and people. More specifically, it is a systematic process for incorporating environmental and social considerations across different levels of strategic decision making. It makes sure environmental and social impacts are considered early, preventing harm and encouraging sustainable development. This is especially important for projects related to renewable energy, such as developing hydropower schemes and building wind farms or solar plants.
In the past, governments often focused on individual projects and didn’t think about the combined effects of multiple developments. This led to unexpected problems like environmental damage and social disruption. SEA changes that by looking at the broad and long-term impacts of policies and plans, helping to avoid costly or irreversible mistakes before they are made.
Click on the topics below to view a few examples of situations that could have been avoided if SEA had been implemented.
The Dust Bowl was a major environmental disaster in the 1930s that mainly affected the prairie regions of the United States and Canada. It was caused by a long drought and poor farming practices that ruined the soil. Farmers had cleared native grasslands to grow crops, but when the drought hit, the dry topsoil blew away in strong winds, creating huge dust storms called “black blizzards.” These storms destroyed millions of tons of soil and harmed many farmers’ lives.
The Dust Bowl forced many farming families to leave their homes and resettle, searching for better opportunities. This event showed the need for improved land management and led to changes in farming policies and environmental conservation efforts. 
The Sahel region in Africa is an example of land degradation and desertification. Factors such as changing rainfall patterns due to climate change, deforestation due to firewood collection and clearing for farmland, overgrazing by livestock, and poor farming practices all contribute to this problem.
As the population has grown, the demand for land and resources has increased, putting even more pressure on the environment. This has led to serious issues like poverty and food insecurity in local communities, highlighting the need for better land management and community involvement to protect the region’s future.
The Aral Sea was once one of the largest lakes in the world, but it has greatly reduced in size over the past few decades. This shrinkage happened because, starting in the 1960s, large irrigation projects diverted the rivers that fed the inland sea. These changes were mainly made to support cotton farming in nearby areas of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. This water diversion led to significant salinization and ecological collapse, transforming the once thriving sea into a series of small, disconnected bodies of water.
The environmental repercussions have been severe, including the loss of fish species, increased desertification of the area, and negative health impacts on local communities due to dust storms from exposed seabed laden with pollutants. Efforts to restore parts of the Aral Sea have had limited success, emphasizing the need for more sustainable agricultural practices and water management strategies.
The Dust Bowl was a major environmental disaster in the 1930s that mainly affected the prairie regions of the United States and Canada. It was caused by a long drought and poor farming practices that ruined the soil. Farmers had cleared native grasslands to grow crops, but when the drought hit, the dry topsoil blew away in strong winds, creating huge dust storms called “black blizzards.” These storms destroyed millions of tons of soil and harmed many farmers’ lives.
The Dust Bowl forced many farming families to leave their homes and resettle, searching for better opportunities. This event showed the need for improved land management and led to changes in farming policies and environmental conservation efforts.
The Sahel region in Africa is an example of land degradation and desertification. Factors such as changing rainfall patterns due to climate change, deforestation due to firewood collection and clearing for farmland, overgrazing by livestock, and poor farming practices all contribute to this problem.
As the population has grown, the demand for land and resources has increased, putting even more pressure on the environment. This has led to serious issues like poverty and food insecurity in local communities, highlighting the need for better land management and community involvement to protect the region’s future.
The Aral Sea was once one of the largest lakes in the world, but it has greatly reduced in size over the past few decades. This shrinkage happened because, starting in the 1960s, large irrigation projects diverted the rivers that fed the inland sea. These changes were mainly made to support cotton farming in nearby areas of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. This water diversion led to significant salinization and ecological collapse, transforming the once thriving sea into a series of small, disconnected bodies of water.
The environmental repercussions have been severe, including the loss of fish species, increased desertification of the area, and negative health impacts on local communities due to dust storms from exposed seabed laden with pollutants. Efforts to restore parts of the Aral Sea have had limited success, emphasizing the need for more sustainable agricultural practices and water management strategies.
SEA works by analyzing different options for a policy, program or plan and considering how they might affect the environment and people. It also involves talking to different stakeholder groups, including government agencies, local communities, and businesses, to get their input and ideas. This helps identify the best way to move forward while minimizing negative impacts.
SEA is different from Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). While EIA looks at the effects of a single project (like building a power plant), in contrast, SEA looks at higher-level policies, plans and programs (PPP) that affect whole sectors, like energy or transportation. SEA also examines how multiple projects within a PPP might cause combined (cumulative) effects on the environment, which EIA typically does not.
Click on the “+” symbols to get brief definitions.
SEA encourages input from many people, including local communities and Indigenous groups, to ensure their concerns and ideas are considered. Involving these stakeholders early in the process leads to better, more informed policies, plans, and decisions. SEA also builds capacity by teaching people about environmental and social impacts, which helps improve future projects.
Who are the stakeholders? Explore the graphic below to learn more.
For SEA to be effective, it needs to happen very early in the policy or planning process so that its recommendations can shape their final focus and content. Governments often need help from experts to carry out SEA and make sure the results are used in decision-making. Training and public engagement are key to ensuring SEA leads to real, positive changes.
In short, SEA is a powerful process that helps decision-makers plan better for the future, ensuring that PPPs, especially in renewable energy (and the projects that flow from them), are environmentally friendly and socially responsible from the start. This will be key to ensuring a fair, just, and sustainable energy transition.
