07/12/2017
To implement Directive 25/CT-TTg, dated 31/8/2016, by the Prime Minister regulating urgent tasks and missions on environment protection, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) on October 24, 2016 issued Decision 3309/QD-BGTVT regulating the Action plan to improve environment protection activities by the MoT during the 2016 - 2020 period.
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| Promote and disseminate the issue of environmental protection in transport activities in general and in development of transport infrastructure in particular |
The Action plan focuses on the following five missions and solutions:
First, the ministry will enhance disseminating resolutions of the Politburo, policies of the Party and regulations of the Government on environment protection to its agencies, units, employees, staff and other members; organize training programmes to improve knowledge of environment protection and connect environment protection regulations with those programmes; and provide information and promote the role of media in environment protection.
Second, the Ministry will strengthen the management and administration system and improve quality and accountability of employees and officials that are working on environment protection issues in the sector; include criteria of environment protection in yearly credits, commendations and rewards for the ministry’s agencies and units; organize, appoint and assign specific leaders and units to take responsibility for environment protection, increase strength of the units and employees that are trained in environment protection and use resources in an efficient and economical way; and seek both domestic and foreign resources to organize training programmes to improve the quality of management and professionalism for officials and employees.
Third, the Ministry will strengthen environment protection activities in connection with the development of transport infrastructure and facilities in the following ways: Strictly conducting strategic environmental assessments (SEA), environmental impact assessments (EIA) and environmental protection plans (EPP); ensuring solutions on reducing environmental impact are included in the design, implementation and technical plans of transport infrastructure development projects; and developing and publishing environmental protection management plans, carrying out environmental protection activities and monitoring implementation of activities under the approved SEAs and EPPs. The Ministry will regularly monitor and supervise implementation of environmental protection solutions in construction projects and review SEAs and EPPs that have been approved for transport infrastructure development projects, especially projects that are likely to have negative environmental impact, to make appropriate amendments.
Fourth, the Ministry will improve quality of waste management activities for waste that is produced from transportation activities and vehicles. The solutions are developing multimodal (combined) transportation and increasing the market share for railway, waterway and coastal transportation; improving quality of public transport in urban areas; and giving priority to investment and exploitation of buses and taxi-cabs that are fuel-saving and friendly to the environment.
The Ministry will apply level-three and level-four fuel emission standards for newly assembled and imported automobiles and two-wheel motors; control fuel emission produced by motors and cars in the cities and provinces; and raise fuel emission limits for imported second-hand vehicles and in-circulation cars.
The Ministry will review and update legal policies and technical standards on sea pollution prevention for sea ships and domestic waterway transports and enhance waste management on those waterway transports in accordance with Viet Nam’s environmental protection regulations and other international conventions.
The Ministry will develop environmental protection regulations for the civil aviation and railway transportation sectors and complete airport noise maps to minimize noise pollution produced by civil aviation transportation activities. The ministry will also develop activities to collect and process waste produced by sea ships, domestic waterway transports and airplanes at seaports, domestic waterway harbors and airports in accordance with the country’s environmental protection regulations.
Fifth, the Ministry will encourage and push companies to achieve green transport business activities and review environmental records of its agencies and units to develop and propose the environmental protection plan in accordance with Item 2, Article 22, Decree 18/2015/ND-CP, issued on 14/2/2015 by the Government.
The Ministry will speed up the development and application of the ISO 14001-based environmental management system; encourage agencies and businesses to apply the ISO 5001-based energy management system and develop and implement standards and regulations on fuel consumption and economical and effective energy use; and develop plans to increase investment in new technologies and replace those that consume high volume of energy and cause environmental pollution. The Ministry will also strictly penalize transport units that cause serious environmental pollution and make sure similar cases do not reoccur in the future.
The Ministry will invest and upgrade facility and equipment that are used to collect, classify, store and process waste produced through the operation of its units and agencies; collect, classify and store solid and toxic waste and contract with organizations and businesses to transfer and process that waste; completely process waste water to meet environmental protection standards; constantly monitor indicators of waste water, emissions, noise and vibration in accordance with regulations; and increase the number and quality of inspections on transport businesses in connection with their compliance of environmental protection regulations.
Trần Ánh Dương
Environment Department Ministry of Transport
