Environmental & Social Impact Assessment - Objectives

Communication and consultation with stakeholders is an essential component of any major infrastructure project. The Nabucco project falls under the EU Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and Turkish EIA legislation and is thus required to undertake an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). The ESIA will be a key instrument in ensuring the successful execution of the Nabucco Project and NIC is preparing a comprehensive cross-border consultation on the project. NIC is committed to implementing effective control and mitigation measures to address any issues that may arise from the process. These will be the key instruments in our negotiations with, and reports for, the International Finance Institutions (IFIs).

The ESIA procedure ensures that environmental consequences of projects are identified and assessed before consent is given for the project. The public can contribute its views and opinions and all results are taken into account in the authorisation procedure of the project.

The scope of the ESIA encompasses geophysical, biological, environment and socio-economic factors along the route.

Each of the five transit countries (Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey) will be conducting an individual Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the pipeline corridor within their national boundaries, which will be compiled into one comprehensive final project ESIA report.

ESIA Goals and Objectives are to:

• Minimise Project Footprint (including rights of way, temporary facilities, access roads)
• Zero discharge of oil/chemicals to land, surface water or groundwater
• Minimise emissions
• Minimise energy and resource use
• Minimise production of waste
• Maximise re-use of displaced materials
• No net loss of sensitive habitat
• No creation of access routes to hitherto inaccessible areas
• Restoration of habitats and hydrological regimes
• No resettlement of local population
• No permanent disruption to the livelihood of the local population
• Socio-economic improvement of the regions alongside the route