| Under the circumstance of global climate change,the Arctic region becomes the center of international attention.With abundant oil and gas resources,transport routes and increasing number of tourist,the frozen Arctic region has become more busy.However,due to the high latitudes,the ecosystem of Arctic is extremely fragile and hard to recover from damaging by human’ s activities.Therefore,all scholars concerned to find out how to balance the contradiction between Arctic development and environmental protection and achieve sustainable development.The Environmental Impact Assessment,which is a key element to make the balance,refers to the process of pre-assessing the environmental impact of the proposed project before starting the project construction.Countries in Arctic all have its own domestic legislation about environmental impact assessment,but construction projects in the Arctic region are more likely to have transboundary environmental impacts,which requires two or more countries to conduct transboundary environmental impact assessment together.Regarding the sources of international law about TEIA in the Arctic region,there are not only general international law principles and international customs,but also treaties and soft laws,including United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,Convention On Environmental Impact Assessment In A Transboundary Context(Espoo Convention),The 1992 Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents,The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity,Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment in the Arctic and Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Guidelines.Among them,the UNCLOS and the CBD only stipulate general obligations and do not have practical guidance.The Industrial Accident Convention is basically similar to the Espoo Convention in Transboundary environmental impact assessment and the treaty itself stipulates that the Espoo Convention can be applied preferentially.The "Espoo Convention" is an international convention specializing in regulating transboundary environmental impact assessment procedures.All eight Arctic countries signed the convention.The Espoo Convention was expected to become the legal basis of the transboundary environmental impact assessment system in the Arctic region.Russia and Iceland failed to ratify the Convention,and the Convention does not take into account the special environmental conditions of the Arctic,which greatly affects the application of the Convention in the Arctic.The Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment in the Arctic was adopted under the special background of the Arctic cooperation process changing from the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy to the Arctic Council.After its adoption,it is no longer the focus of the Arctic Council ’s work and no follow-up mechanism has been established to implement the guidance.Besides it is a soft law with no binding forces,so it has also failed to play its guiding role.In a conclusion,despite the existence of the above-mentioned treaties and softlaws related to the Arctic Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment,the regulatory functions that can really be exerted are limited.The best way to solve this situation is establishing a general environmental protection treaty like Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty,but in fact it is hard to achieve.A more practical approach is to adjust existing conventions and documents,urging the United States,Russia,and Iceland to approve the Espoo Convention,establishing a follow-up mechanism to the Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment in the Arctic,attaching importance to the guiding role of the guideline.Paying more attention to the role of indigenous peoples and non-governmental organizations in the Arctic region,organizing the transboundary environmental impact assessment process among the eight Arctic countries,improving the quality of public participation,and effectively playing the role of the TEIA process in the Arctic region to prevent environmental pollution and achieve sustainable development in the Arctic. |
