Aalborg Universitet Strategic Environmental Assessment & The Danish Energy Sector Exploring non-programmed strategic decisions Lyhne, Ivar Publication date: 2012 Document Version Accepted author manuscript, peer reviewed version Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Lyhne, I. (2012). Strategic Environmental Assessment & The Danish Energy Sector: Exploring non-programmed strategic decisions. Institut for Samfundsudvikling og Planlægning, Aalborg Universitet. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: September 26, 2021 SEA and the Danish energysector: Exploring non-programmed strategic decisions "Strategic Environmental Assessment and the Danish Energy Sector" is a doctoral thesis based on a Ph.D. project with the same title. The overall aim of the project has been to assist actors in the energy sector in developing a meaningful way of applying SEA at strategic level. Understanding of how strategic decisions are made is a prerequisite for achieving this target, and the thesis therefore explores the strategic decision-making STRATEGIC processes of contemporary energy infrastructure developments. The highlights of this thesis are: ENVIRONMENTAL ‐ A combination of disciplines in a continuum of perspectives on strategic decision-making provides a strong framework for ASSESSMENT enhancing insight into how decisions are made. ‐ Sense-making theory is a pertinent frame for increasing & insight into how we create meaning of information, which is crucial for how we perceive strategic choices and determine THE DANISH relevant alternatives. ‐ Empirical cases reveal how strategic decision-making in the ENERGY SECTOR sector is characterised by an extensive interaction between policy-making and planning in a highly dynamic context. EXPLORING ‐ The outlined characteristics challenge the application of SEA NON-PROGRAMMED especially in terms of timing and flexibility. SEA practice is still in its infancy in the Danish energy sector, but SEA is STRATEGIC DECISIONS achieving increased attention in the sector. ‐ The change agent research approach used in the project is relevant medium for a critical interdependence between Ivar Lyhne theory and practice that at the same time promotes more Doctoral thesis, 2011 sustainable decision-making. The research is based on interaction with a range of actors in the DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT Danish energy sector, hereunder Energinet.dk and the Danish AND PLANNING Energy Agency. It draws on contemporary cases of policy and AALBORG UNIVERSITY planning decisions like the development of offshore wind power and natural gas infrastructures. Application of SEA on these cases is crucial for reducing the risk of unintended environmental impacts and for enhancing attention to relevant alternatives prior to decision-making. Lyhne Ivar STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT & THE DANISH ENERGY SECTOR EXPLORING NON-PROGRAMMED STRATEGIC DECISIONS Ivar Lyhne Doctoral thesis, 2011 DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING AALBORG UNIVERSITY Copyright © 2011 by Ivar Lyhne All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission by the author Printed by Uniprint, Aalborg University The publication: Title: SEA and the Danish Energy sector: Exploring non-programmed strategic decisions ISBN: 978-87-91404-14-6 Number of pages: 292 (329 with appendixes) Front cover: Photo copyrights by Energinet.dk and Svend Lyhne The author: Ivar Lyhne, M.Sc. in Engineering (Planning and Environment with specialisation in Environmental Management) Member of the Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment Ph.D. fellow at the Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University The Ph.D. project: Project title: Strategisk miljøvurdering i energisektoren [Strategic environmental assessment in the energy sector] Project period: August 2008 - November 2011 Ph.D. supervisor: Professor Lone Kørnøv Partner: Energinet.dk ii TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION 1. The need for a meaningful way of applying SEA 3 1.1 State of the art and contributions 10 2. Research questions and structure 15 FRAMEWORKS 3. Research framework as change agent research 21 3.1 Change agent in the field of SEA 22 3.2 Approaches to practice and theory in this Ph.D. project 51 4. Conceptual framework on strategic decision-making processes 63 4.1 Combining theories of decision-making and sense-making 65 4.2 Proposing a conceptual framework 86 5. Methodological framework for the investigations 97 5.1 Generic methodological considerations 99 5.2 Methodology for the specific parts of the thesis 105 UNRAVELLING 6. Strategic decision-making as a series of choices 117 6.1 SEA between policy-making and planning 118 6.2 Strategic decision-making processes in Energinet.dk 141 7. Strategic decision-making as contextual interaction 151 7.1 Strategic developments and framing of alternatives in SEA 152 8. Strategic decision-making as human choice 173 8.1 Making sense of significance 175 8.2. Choices and sense-making in an EA of a gas storage 206 SPIN-OFFS 9. Scope of the legislation 227 10. Discourses on the role of SEA 241 SYNTHESIS 11. Elements of a meaningful way of applying SEA 255 12. Looking outwards and forward 264 APPENDIXES 271 REFERENCES 299 iii ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AESOP: Association of European Schools of Planning ANSEA: Analytical Strategic Environmental Assessment CCS: Carbon capture and storage DASEP: Danish Agency of Spatial and Environmental Planning DEA: Danish Energy Agency EA: Environmental assessment EIA: Environmental impact assessment IAIA: International Association for Impact Assessment NGSSP: Natural Gas Security of Supply Plan SEA: Strategic environmental assessment TSO: Transmission system operator (on energy) DEFINITION OF TERMS Some of the terms used in this thesis are overlapping each other in the literature used. Therefore, they are defined as follows: Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA) - SEA is "a systematic, decision aiding procedure for evaluating the likely significant environmental effects of options throughout the policy plan or programme development process, beginning at the earliest opportunity, including a written report and the involvement of the public throughout the process" (Sheate et al. 2001, p. 7). The concept of SEA used in this thesis is presented in details in appendix B. - EIA is also a systematic, decision aiding procedure for evaluating the likely significant environmental effects, however, in contrast to SEA, EIA is oriented towards individual projects and towards alternatives rather than options. Decision and choice - Decision has its origin in the Latin 'decidere' = to cut off (Merriam-Webster online). A decision is thus given importance and it is cutting off other options (see chapter 4) - Choice has its origin in the Old English 'cēosan' = to choose. A choice is here understood as less prominent and decisive. A decision can be constituted by a range of choices. Equivocality, ambiguity and uncertainty - Uncertainty is about lack of knowledge, e.g. "an individual's perceived inability to predict something accurately" (Milliken 1990, p. 136). Uncertainty is categorised in several types by Berkeley and Humphreys (1982) and Rotmans and van Asselt (2001). - Ambiguity is about unclear meaning: "Ambiguous situations are situations that cannot be coded precisely into mutually exhaustive and exclusive categories" (March 1994, p. 178). In contrast to uncertainty, ambiguity is a lack of a clear-cut meaning of the information. - Equivocality is the "richness and multiplicity of meaning that can be superimposed on a situation" (Weick 1989, p. 174) and compared to ambiguous situations, equivocality "is more about the confusion created by two or more meanings" (p. 174) iv PREFACE A professor once told me that a Ph.D. project is a rare chance for going in depth into aspects of research; three years of immersion into aspects of interest is not easy to achieve in other ways. I have treasured this chance and indeed enjoyed being immersed in theories of human behaviour and being a change agent that investigates the mysterious strategic decision- making in the energy sector in order to facilitate change. This thesis is an outcome of a three-year Ph.D. project on strategic environmental assessment and the energy sector. The research has been carried out at Aalborg University in collaboration with and co-financed by Energinet.dk. The project period has been convergent with a period of considerable strategic developments in the energy sector, which has made the project even more interesting: With immense