14-1190b-innovation-managing-risk-evidence

THE NGO PERSPECTIVE
Harry Huyton (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)
In March 2014, the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds (RSPB) published a review of the ecological risks
associated with hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in the
United Kingdom, along with a number of recommendations
to address these risks. The review was based on literature
principally concerned with hydraulic fracturing in the
United States, which we interpreted and applied to the UK
situation.
The key risks to the natural environment that we
highlighted were: water demand in areas under water
stress, causing low river flows; water contamination as a
result of well-casing failures and surface spillages; pollution
incidents as a result of waste handling and disposal; and
the loss, fragmentation and disturbance of wildlife habitats.
All of these risks increase significantly at the commercial
extraction phase, but they are manageable if an effective
policy and regulatory framework is put in place.
Crucially, we also argued that this framework should be
precautionary, given that the environmental impacts of the
industry in the United States have been poorly studied, and
because the geological and environmental conditions in
the United Kingdom are quite different. Our assessment is
that we do not currently have an effective and sufficiently
precautionary framework.
It has been a source of frustration that the public and
political debate about fracking in the United Kingdom has
become so polarized that a discussion about risks and
responses has been effectively impossible.
The scope and approach taken by the Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the current licensing
round for onshore oil and gas illustrates this. An SEA
is an important policy tool that theoretically allows the
environmental impacts of a plan or programme (and its
alternatives) to be assessed, and improvements or mitigating
measures to be identified and recommended. In practice
they have too often become bureaucratic exercises that
have little bearing on the policy, and this SEA was no
exception.
For example, no meaningful lower-risk alternatives were
assessed. In fact, one alternative — reducing the licensing
area by screening out the most ecologically vulnerable
sites — was explicitly rejected on the grounds that it went
against the overarching aim of “comprehensive exploration
and appraisal of UK oil and gas resources and the economic
development of identified reserves”. In effect, any response
to environmental risks that result in any restriction on the
industry was ruled out from the start.
The public cares deeply about the countryside and
the wildlife that we share it with. That means they
expect government to be diligent and precautionary in
understanding and addressing risks, through open and
responsible debate and by applying tools like SEA. If risks
are instead downplayed, branded as myths or simply ignored,
the opportunity for evidence-based debate and progress by
mutual consent is quickly lost.
The public and political
debate about fracking in
the United Kingdom has
become so polarized that
a discussion about risks
and responses has been
effectively impossible.
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