REZs are playing a crucial role in accelerating the energy transition. They hold the promise of economies of scale, streamlined land use planning and simplified permitting processes. Ultimately, they offer local communities and developers greater certainty over future development.
In practice, developers are seeing increased community opposition and are duplicating studies to support permitting processes. Communities and local stakeholders are experiencing consultation fatigue and are raising increased concerns over the cumulative impacts caused by multiple projects within a REZ.
REZ developers need to develop methods to better understand cumulative impacts and coordinate with renewable developers to realise benefits and minimise cumulative impacts, including those associated with community cohesion and engagement.
In this article, WSP’s Carla Martinez, National Executive Communities and Social Performance, explores how WSP can support governments and energy developers to navigate the complexities of these projects and get REZ ready.
1. Engage early before declaring a REZ
Australia’s first east coast REZs resulted in some important lessons learned. The first is the need for early engagement and consultation prior to declaring a REZ. Victoria, Queensland and now Western Australia and New South Wales are all adopting this lesson, creating a consultation process for important decisions about REZ boundaries and locations.
By engaging before REZs are declared, state governments can better understand the social landscape, values and key considerations before moving forward. Notably, how governments conduct this engagement is also key to leveraging the benefits.
Some examples of lessons learned include ensuring that information is accessible to all, and that engagement channels accurately reflect the community. While Community Consultative Committees (sometimes also called Community Reference Groups) are a good way to reach key stakeholder representatives and community leaders, there is a need to move beyond this and foster common ground between larger (and more diverse) groups of people.
Deliberative engagement is an approach that can be used to involve more diverse groups and provide opportunities for people to have a say irrespective of demographic differences.
Promoting various avenues for participation is the key to promote inclusion, trust and legitimacy in the process. Face-to-face, online and one-on-one consultations and follow-ups are some common methods that can be adopted. There must also be clear processes to handle enquiries. Communications is also an important part of this, and it can be easily overlooked and resulting in people withdrawing participation and losing trust in the process.
2. Assess both strategic and cumulative impacts
Strategic Impact Assessments (SIAs) and Cumulative Impact Assessments (CIAs) provide critical insights into the combined implications of renewable energy projects in a geographical area. These tools allow for better planning outcomes at a much larger scale, rather than through project-by-project assessments.
SIAs were formally introduced in Australia with the enactment of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act in 1999, providing an integrated approach to Environmental Impact Assessment and biodiversity conservation. SIAs allow for the assessment of cumulative impacts of multiple projects or activities within a defined geographic area or timeframe.
Similarly, CIAs analyse the combined effects of these projects on the environment, communities, and economies. CIAs are considered an integral part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process. In NSW, the Cumulative Impact Assessment State Significant Projects details how to assess and manage cumulative impacts. The Guideline recognises that managing cumulative impacts is a shared responsibility and requires collaboration between government, industry, and the community.
For both SIAs and CIAs, multi-party stakeholder engagement is required to collect and share data, undertake investigations and research, and collaborate to analyse the results and identify what actions can minimise cumulative impacts.
Matters requiring a CIA will differ depending on the REZ location. However some of common matters requiring CIA are:
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Housing and accommodation to host project workforces
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Availability of human capital and supply chains
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Pressure over social infrastructure
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Road upgrades and maintenance
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Telecommunications
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Waste and circular economy
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Bushfire and biosecurity risks
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Visual amenity and aesthetic values
The Queensland Government has adopted REZ Readiness Assessments to identify and manage social impacts associated with REZs. Similarly, in NSW a number of studies are underway to coordinate and manage community impacts and benefits within REZs.
3. Collaborate at the sector level and the community level
Across NSW, community and industry reference groups are emerging as a way to coordinate and collaborate across REZs.
WSP has worked collaboratively with Energy Corporation of NSW (EnergyCo) to deliver CIAs for the Central West Orana REZ Transmission Project. In addition to the CIAs, EnergyCo is collaborating with renewable developers to address cumulative impacts and maximise the delivery of benefits associated with a REZ.
Establishing targeted reference groups is one way developers can receive guidance from the community and key local stakeholders about how to approach each development. An example of this is the development of First Nations Guidelines for each one of the REZs. Such guidelines set local participation goals for First Nations people. The goal being to promote First Nations access to the benefits, employment and business opportunities resulting from REZs.
4. Embed a social and environmental performance
While a focus on social licence has increased industry attention on societal and community concerns, there is little evidence to demonstrate it is influencing project design to avoid or minimise social impacts – or is considering the voices of those most affected. Shifting a focus from social licence to social and environmental performance offers a more responsible and mutually beneficial relationship between industries and the societies in which they operate.
Social and environmental performance frameworks support the consistent management of social risks and impacts (positive and negative) on individuals, communities and the environment. These frameworks help companies and/or projects deliver better outcomes and social sustainability for host communities.
Transitioning towards a social performance approach represents a shift in mindset and organisational practices. It requires organisations to embed social considerations throughout the early planning, design and delivery of projects through to decommissioning and closure. A social performance approach provides the processes and guidelines for ongoing implementation, monitoring and review.
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