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The purpose of this paper is to examine the several methodologies and activities taken to assess the environmental impacts of a $33 million pilot project undertaken through a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) jointly with significant Chinese government investments. The ADB biogas utilization project has supported construction of over 7,500 biogas digesters in more than 140 rural villages. An additional 10,000 biogas digesters are programmed as well as significant investment in biogas production through large‐scale animal agribusinesses. The latter will be supported through investments utilizing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The paper provides a longitudinal perspective by: looking at the project's Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) undertaken at appraisal; assessing the ongoing energy and environmental monitoring plan currently under way; and examining the potential for the use of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as a tool for integrating environmental policy considerations on a regional or provincial level in China.

Improved technologies for application of renewable energy – in particular successful application and adoption of biogas digesters at the village level – offer the potential to promote sustainable, cost‐effective growth in agriculture with concurrent positive environmental impacts.

Based on the relative success of ongoing efforts to promote the adoption of biomass technologies, a significant expansion of the bioenergy program is under consideration by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The case study suggests that there is potential for use of SEA as a tool for the establishment of regional or provincial environmental priorities by taking account of information on the economic, social and environmental benefits, costs and risks of adopting a national strategy for biomass utilization. SEA is a recent innovation in China and must be adapted to local conditions.

This paper seeks to review literature on environmental safeguards for five selected multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) with the objective of verifying whether their environmental safeguards have been updated with climate change elements, and whether they have adopted specific climate change strategies for their investment portfolios.

The methodology set for this review was based on a set of descriptive criteria. These included content reviews on MFIs existing safeguards or formal environmental guidelines, the extent of incorporation of climate change to guidelines text, and overarching strategies adopted to address climate change.

Generally, the environmental safeguards reviewed have minimally discussed formal considerations of climate change issues. Although environmental safeguards continue to play vital roles in bank operations, it generally remains traditional with minimal adjustments to formally include climate change. Nevertheless, all the banks have developed overarching climate change strategies at the strategic level.

The information presented herein is compiled from articles, reports, papers and books identified from computer‐based searches. The research is limited to information available on the internet, books and papers. It is therefore possible that MFIs are involved in some climate change activities not yet in the public domain, and as such are not covered by this paper.

Quite clearly, the adjustment of environmental assessments such as environmental impacts assessment/strategic environmental assessment to include climate change is in the offing. This means that practitioners may need to considerably understand the character of climate change and thereby construct concrete approaches to tackle both ideological and methodological gaps.

This paper fulfils an identified need in the climate change discourse, bringing forward climate change as an issue deserving more legal, formal and obligatory attention.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to mainstream consideration of climate change adaptation (CCA) in Bangladesh, particularly for the coastal zone, to improve disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies in this region. Continuing climate risks require adaptation at all levels of society. The densely populated and resource-rich coastal zone of Bangladesh is at risk to the impacts of climate change.

This research is based on secondary sources (gray and published literature) of information on climate change impacts on the coastal zone of Bangladesh. The sources include research reports, online publications, governmental reports, scientific journals, international reports, books, journal articles and other academic resources on SEA, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and DRR. In addition to examining SEA in Bangladesh, this paper investigates SEA cases in different countries to obtain insights from the successful application of SEA for CCA.

The paper draws on several cases from different countries demonstrating that SEA has a significant potential to coordinate CCA objectives. The findings reveal that the appropriate use of SEA can enable DRR through CCA.

This study argues that SEA has a potential role in supporting CCA.

The increase in issues pertaining to the strategic assessment of territorial transformation has made it necessary to find new methods and tools that are able to consider the several factors at stake. The purpose of this paper is to examine the full range of impacts produced by a project in a territorial context and propose a real application concerning the construction of a new hydropower plant in Bulgaria.

Making use of checklists, network chains and specific impact matrixes, the paper tries to evaluate the overall environmental compatibility of the project.

The performed analysis highlights a final compatibility that in most cases is satisfactory, where the most critical states concern the disturbance to the fauna species living in the area and, above all, the impacts of the project on the landscape.

The work puts in evidence the necessity of further investigations for the definition of mitigation measures that are able to reduce the most relevant effects of the project, especially the visual impact of the dams.

A part from the environmental issues, a key‐role in the general feasibility of large dam projects is played by the analysis of the social impacts. The paper puts in evidence the importance of considering in the evaluation, the effects of the hydropower plant on the community.

The general theme has an interdisciplinary nature and requires several issues to be considered: technical, economic, social and environmental aspects. The paper provides a comprehensive assessment framework in order to implement such an interdisciplinary approach.

This paper sets out to assess and analyses the key pillars of the SEA framework in Kenya, highlighting aspects that should be considered for further scrutiny and review, aiming at evolving a suitable context‐specific Kenyan SEA.

Content analysis of the SEA framework was done through desktop research. This was supplemented by a two‐month internship at the National Environmental Management Authority in Kenya. The key documents prescribing and describing SEA in Kenya (legal documents, guidelines) formed a basis for interpretative analysis. International literature on SEA frameworks also formed a basis for analysis.

Although the SEA framework is relatively complete, there are certain elements that are incomplete, e.g. environmental and sustainability standards have not been formally established. Some provisions are unclear or reveal internal incoherency within the framework. For example, the definitions of policies, plans, programmes and projects are not clearly differentiated for the purpose of the SEA framework. The framework is premised on “an early SEA” yet the key exercises of public participation and the triggering of the SEA exercise are both carried out late. There is need for SEA‐EIA tiering and SEA definitions and purposes to be harmonized within the various documents of the framework. Sector‐level SEA guidelines offer the most appropriate opportunity to address most of the substantive shortcomings of the framework.

The results provide a baseline for departure towards further scrutiny and research in order to evolve a more homegrown SEA, as opposed to merely copyng what other countries have done. The highlighted areas are expounded on, with some suggestions given; in some instances no clear remedy is immediately obvious.

The paper is a seminal instigator of interest into the Kenyan SEA framework, which is still very young and devoid of experience and tradition. It brings to light and questions some key issues that seem to have the potential to reduce the benefits and instrumentality of the SEA tool in meeting Kenya's interest.

In this article, we present empirical results that document the critical changes in planning attitudes and practices and their implications on strategic market planning. The particular focus of this article is to illustrate the growing use of multiple scenarios as an approach to strategic environmental assessment, and to present key factors that marketing management must consider when adopting the multiple scenario approach.

In strategic planning and management of environmental resources, traditional multicriteria analysis is usually adopted for evaluating alternative development scenarios against a set of criteria. However, the modeling of the problem is often inadequate for representing the complexity which characterizes the decision. To overcome this problem, this paper aims to suggest the application of an advanced version of the analytic hierarchy process: the analytic network process (ANP).

The ANP is the first mathematical approach that makes it possible to systematically deal with all kinds of dependencies and feedback among elements. It requires the identification of a network of clusters and nodes, as well as pair‐wise comparison to establish relations within the network elements. The number of comparisons is dependent on the number of interrelations among the elements.

The method is applied to the Strategic Management Plan of the River Po Basin in Italy. The result obtained is a surprising ranking which places major weight on the cultural heritage and landscape rather than on traditional environmental categories, such as land and water. This result reflects the recent River Po Basin Authority strategy to institute an integrated and coordinated policy action in the field.

The proposed approach has improved the integration of the strategic evaluation in the decision‐making process within the management of territorial development policies, thanks to a better representation of the interrelations among issues within the decision model.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainability can become a source of competitive advantage for mature manufacturing sectors where technologies are standardized, and innovation is mainly generated across the value chain and not by individual companies.

From the methodological point of view, this research estimates the sustainability status of ceramic production in the Sassuolo district (Italy), using the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) model, and changing the observation point for the analysis, from the enterprise (micro level) to the entire sector (meso level).

This paper provides an analysis of the environmental, economic and social impacts of the four main types of ceramic tiles manufactured in Italy, both in aggregate terms for the entire sector and per square meter of product.

The methodological approach used in this research is easy to replicate both for companies when designing their sustainability strategies and for public decision makers when assessing the sustainability performance of a sector or supply chain.

For the first time, a socio-economic impact assessment is proposed for the ceramic sector, conducted in parallel with the environmental impact assessment through stakeholder mapping and prioritization.

This paper conceptualizes the theme of relations and interdependencies between ceramic producers organized in industrial districts and the territories in which they operate in order to determine empirically the sustainability performance of Italian ceramic sector, using the LCSA model with a territorial extension that presupposes an innovative contribution to current literature and practice.