Development of guidelines for harmonized environmental impact assessment suitable for the ESCWA region

This study is designed to address three major objectives: to explore the need for harmonizing environmental impact assessment (EIA) policies and supporting environmental regulations, standards and process in ESCWA member States as an optimum modality for avoiding environmental dumping in the region (an investigation of the economic drawbacks of lax implementation of EIA policies complements the analysis); to examine the need for transboundary EIA in the ESCWA region, including the main challenges and issues that require negotiation and agreement between ESCWA members; to provide guidelines regarding ways to approximate and establish comparable EIA procedures in ESCWA member States, as well as offer recommendations regarding the potential role of ESCWA in paving the road towards effective transboundary EIA formulation.--Publisher summary.