Endorsing the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Protocol
SEA facilitates the identification and prevention of a project’s possible environmental effects right from the start, and enables environmental objectives to be considered on a par with socioeconomic ones.
WHO/Europe ensured that provisions for including health aspects in environmental assessments were made in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Protocol, and assists its Member States in implementing the Protocol.
This Protocol is a means of integrating environmental and health concerns into the decision-making process. By requiring parties to evaluate the environmental and health consequences of their draft plans and programmes, as well as to consult with health authorities in the SEA process, it marks a step ahead of the European Union SEA Directive, to which it is closely related. The SEA Protocol was signed in 2003 by 35 European countries and entered into force in 2010.
