02/03/2021
The Law on Environment Protection (LEP) in 2020 has just been passed by the Vietnam’s National Assembly, including 16 Chapters, 171 articles, effective from January 1st, 2022, in which many new and breakthrough policies such as the classification of the first projects have been specified. investment according to environmental criteria; regulations on environmental permits; import manufacturers extended responsibility for product recall and recycling; pay for the collection, transportation and treatment of domestic solid waste from households and individuals based on the volume or volume of sorted waste; regulations on response to climate change; Adopt best available techniques (BAT); prevention and response to environmental incidents; payments for natural ecosystem services; carbon market organization and development; liability insurance for damages caused by environmental incidents; cyclic economy; green shopping; exploitation, use and development of natural capital; green credit, green bonds; environmental audit.
1. Classification of investment projects according to environmental criteria, environmental impact assessment (EIA), environmental permit and environmental carrying capacity
Classification of investment projects according to environmental criteria: Although this content has been applied as a basis for determining the subjects of EIA under the LEP 2014. However, by the Law on Environmental Protection in 2020, the classification of investment projects according to environmental criteria has been scientifically specified in Article 28. Accordingly, projects are classified into: Investment projects with high risk of adverse impacts on the environment (Group I); Investment projects with risk of adversely affecting the environment (Group II); Investment projects with minor risk of adverse impacts on the environment (Group III); Investment projects with no risk of adversely affecting the environment (Group IV). This classification is based on 3 criteria: Size, capacity, type of production, business and service; Area of land use, land with water surface, marine area, scale of exploitation of natural resources; Sensitive factors for the environment.
For this classification, the Law has defined behavioral rules for each group to effectively control each category, meeting the project principle, the more likely the project has the risk of causing pollution, the more closely it is controlled as follows: For Group I investment projects, the Law stipulates more management measures such as: Preliminary environmental impact assessment (Article 29) in the pre-feasibility study stage of construction investment, proposing investment policy, request for approval of investment policy or approval for investment policy; EIA (Article 30) in the feasibility study process; Having environmental permit, if wastewater, dust, emissions are discharged into the environment, they must be treated, or hazardous waste must be managed before going into operation (Article 39).
For Group II investment projects, no preliminary environmental impact assessment is required; only requires EIA for some types of projects; For the remaining projects, if wastewater, dust, emissions are discharged into the environment, they must be treated, or hazardous waste must be managed, the environmental permit must be issued right in the project feasibility study stage.
For Group III investment projects, the EIA is not required; no EIA is required; environmental permit need to be issued by local level if generated wastewater, dust, exhaust gas.
For Group IV investment projects, it is required to register the environment (Article 49) if waste is generated and the communal People's Committee receives the registration.
Environmental permits are specified in order to integrate all types of current environmental permits, certificates: wastewater discharge; exhaust gas emissions; Hazardous waste treatment; scrap import; hazardous waste source owner registration. With this integration, the majority of existing licenses as well as licensing procedures are reduced to help reduce social costs and costs of investors in investment, production, business and translation activities. At the same time, ensure uniform state management of the environment.
The LEP 2020 has set the environmental criteria to classify investment projects, from which appropriate environmental management tools for each type of project are applied in each stage of project implementation. This is a scientific and unified approach which has been applied effectively by many advanced countries in the world.
Carrying capacity of the environment: The LEP 2020 stipulates the granting of environmental permits based on the environmental zoning, the environmental carrying capacity (Article 42). The key point in this regulation is reflected in Clause 2, Article 7, which stated: “Shall not approve EIA report appraisal results or grant environmental permit for new investment projects that discharge wastewater into surface water sources of no carrying capacity as announced by a competent state agency, unless the project owner has a plan for wastewater treatment that meets environmental technical regulations on surface water quality before being discharged into the receiving environment or there is a plan to recirculate, reuse so as not to generate more wastewater or in the case there is project of treating the pollution, improving, restoring, and improving the quality of the environment in the polluted area”. With this regulation, along with the strict enforcement, the area of serious environmental pollution (EP) or environmental degradation will decrease, accordingly, people's right to live in a clean environment will be guaranteed efficiency.
2. Circular economy and solid waste management towards the application of recycling, resource circulation
Circular economy is a completely new content, defined to keep up with the current development trend when resources, fuels and raw materials are increasingly scarce and expensive. The transition from a linear economy (where resources and inputs go through the production process forming an output to consumption and end at the major disposal stage at landfills) to the circular economy in which “design, production, consumption and service activities reduce the extraction of raw materials, materials, extend product life, reduce generated waste and minimize negative impacts”. Article 142 shows that the regulation focuses on saving fuel by improving design, applying advanced production technology, using recycled materials, so resources will be saving, recirculating.
Along with the regulation of circular economy, the LEP 2020 has many new regulations on solid waste management to gradually contribute to the formation of a circular economic model such as: Adequate application of the manufacturer's extended responsibility mechanism for product recall and recycling (Extended producer responsibility - EPR) (Article 54); Payment of service charges for collection, transportation and treatment of domestic solid waste from households and individuals based on the amount of sorted waste (Article 79); Ordinary industrial solid waste is self-recycled, treated, co-treated, and energy recovered (Article 82), specifically as follows:
Provisions on recycling responsibilities of producers and importers (Article 54), although are stipulated in principle but have sufficient basis to fully apply the EPR mechanism, according to which “The producer or importer of products and recyclable packages must recycle according to the required rates and recycling specifications", have choices to carry out recycling by themself "or" make a financial contribution to the Vietnam Environment Protection Fund to support recycling products and packaging". The EPR mechanism is widely applied in Europe, ASEAN countries, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.
Applying this mechanism, Korea has effectively implemented resource savings, increasing the recycling volume by 75% for more than 10 years (2003: 1,047,000 tons to 1,837,000 tons in 2017), of which in 2017: 92% of plastic waste is recycled (2003: 172,000 tons to 883,000 tons in 2017). In Taiwan, the amount of waste per capita tends to decrease gradually (from 1.15 kg / person in 1998 to 0.87 kg / person in 2014), but the rate of recycling tends to increase (increased from 3% in 1998 to 45% in 2015)
Paying for domestic solid waste collection and treatment service based on the sorted amount of waste, according to which: domestic solid waste must be classified into, solid waste that can be reused or recycled; food waste; other domestic solid waste. They must be stored in packages to be collected and disposed of. The gathering point, transfer station must have different areas to store the classified domestic solid waste, ensuring that classified wastes are not mixed together. Solid waste that is reusable, recyclable, and hazardous waste generated from households and individuals has been classified according to regulations without having to pay for collection, transportation and treatment services. For other types of solid waste, it must be stored in the packages prescribed by the People's Committee to be collected and recycled. Domestic solid waste collectors and transporters have the right to refuse collection and transportation of domestic solid waste from households and individuals that fail to classify and use packaging in accordance with regulations.
As can be seen, the Law has clearly defined regulations that allow local authorities to collect costs to pay for domestic solid waste through the sale of plastic bags (which can be understood that this bag is issued exclusively by the local government in the area, the price is calculated accordingly), people will put garbage in it, the bigger the bag, the higher the price. The collection unit only collects waste that is contained in this plastic bag. People who want to spend a little money must find ways to limit waste; waste classification (recyclable garbage is left separately for sale or transfer at no cost to collection service), only store non-recyclable waste in plastic bags distributed by the local government onions; arrange garbage neatly, minimize the volume to be stored in a plastic bag.
This policy has been successful in many countries such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan.... In other countries, at first, people also objected to and refused to classify garbage, not use bags issued by the authorities, and sneaky litter. However, after a while the collector does not collect the waste that is not contained in the bag according to regulations, the waste in some places starts causing pollution, forcing the community to speak up and taking measures to adjust the behavior. In parallel with this, the monitoring and handling of violations are strictly carried out, along with the propaganda and awareness raising of the community, after a few years, the separation of garbage at source is carried out as a habit of civilized and modern life.
Conventional industrial solid wastes that are self-recycled, treated, co-treated, and energy recovered are fully regulated, paving the way for recycling, reuse, energy recovery, building materials production and ground filling, will basically overcome the current common industrial wastes that are piled up, thrown away without a mechanism to recycle, reuse…
Thus, the above groundbreaking regulations, if applied methodically and systematically with high determination of all levels of government, especially local authorities and the support of citizens and enterprises will basically solve the current increase of solid waste landfills such as Nam Sơn and Đa Phước and contribute to forming a circular economy in Việt Nam.
3. Create a legal framework to promote response to climate change, meet the implementation of commitments in the CPTPP and EVFTA and international treaties on climate change
According to the LEP 2020, the contents of climate change adaptation (Article 90) are fully defined including impact assessment, vulnerability, risk, loss and damage; implementing climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, community-based and ecosystem-based climate change adaptation models; respond to sea level rise and urban inundation; building and implementing a monitoring and evaluation system for climate change adaptation activities, thereby enhancing the resilience of natural and social systems, minimizing the impacts of climate change and take advantage of opportunities brought by climate change. The contents of greenhouse gas emission reduction (Article 91) such as implementing the roadmap and methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions according to international commitments; inventory of greenhouse gases, development of domestic carbon markets.
Regulations on organization and development of carbon markets are specified in Article 139, this is a new market tool that can, on the one hand, help us fulfill international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, on the other hand, it helps domestic enterprises to develop and apply low-carbon technology. The most important thing is to serve as a basis for developing domestic carbon markets, linking with international carbon markets to develop exchange of greenhouse gas emissions quotas and appropriate carbon credits in accordance with the provisions of law and international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam is a member.
People have the right to live in a healthy environment
The ozone layer protection provisions in Article 92 shall serve as the basis for the management of production, import-export, consumption and elimination of ozone-depleting substances, controlled greenhouse effects. within the framework of the international treaty on the protection of the ozone layer. In addition, other regulations aim to expand the scope of climate change responses implementation, such as integrating climate change responses into strategies and planning (Article 96); building a national database on climate change (Article 97), implementing international commitments on climate change and protecting the ozone layer (Article 98). Thus, it can be seen that the LEP 2020 already has basic regulations to manage climate change response activities to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change, and at the same time taking advantage of development opportunities offered by the carbon market.
4. Regulations ensuring clear determination of mechanisms and responsibilities in the prevention and response to environmental incidents and environmental remediation after environmental incidents
Prevention and response to environmental incidents specified in Articles 121 to 129 clearly define the competence, responsibility, mechanism for prevention, preparation for environmental incident response and response and environmental recovery after incidents on the basis of flexible application of incident, disaster response, search and rescue mechanisms. These contents continue to be regulated centrally and directly to prevent environmental incidents of establishments. Regulations serve as the basis for the implementation of planning, drills, and development of the environmental incident response plan (the establishment's plan is mainstreamed, integrated, and approved with other incident response plans so as no new administrative procedures arise).
Responding to environmental incidents is done according to 4 incident levels, based on the scope of influence at the time of incident detection to determine the agency responsible for directing response: Environmental incidents grassroots level (by the establishment's response); District environmental incidents; Provincial environmental incidents; National level environmental incidents. The Law also clearly defines the person who directs the response to environmental incidents as the Chairman of the People's Committee at district and provincial levels, and the Chairman of the National Committee for Incident and Disaster Response and Search and Rescue. The environmental incident response leader establishes an environmental incident response command center and a working group to determine the cause of the environmental incident; appointing the commander and spokesperson for the environmental incident; mobilize forces, equipment and means to respond to the incident. This regulation aims to clearly define in the direction of response to the commanders at the scene, as well as to speak on environmental incidents to ensure professionalism, efficiency, synchronization and consistency.
The environmental recovery after the incident is carried out by organizations and individuals according to the environmental restoration plan approved by the People's Committee of the district, province and the MONRE corresponding to each incident level (for a grassroots incident, by the establishment itself within the establishment). In case the cause of the incident cannot be identified, the agency approving the plan will implement the plan for environmental recovery after the incident. The environmental recovery after environmental incidents must ensure the compliance with environmental technical regulations on ambient quality.
Organizations and individuals that cause environmental incidents have the responsibility to pay promptly and all costs for environmental incident response and environmental restoration; in case the State responds to environmental incidents and recovers the environment, the organizations or individuals causing environmental incidents shall have to reimburse the State for related expenses. For environmental incidents with unidentified causes or unidentifiable organizations or individuals causing environmental incidents, funding for environmental incident response and restoration shall be paid by the State.
Organizations, individuals and residential communities potentially affected by environmental incidents must be informed of the incident risks and environmental incident response measures of surrounding establishments; to be informed, participate and supervise environmental incident response activities. The start and end of the environmental incident response and restoration phase must be announced and publicized by the competent authority / person on the mass media for organizations, individuals and communities are known, participated and monitored.
These regulations have provided a mechanism to clearly define the responsibility for environmental incident response of the establishment and state agencies and have the feasible mechanism to respond to environmental incidents effectively, in a timely manner, thoroughly applying the principle that polluters have to pay but still demonstrates the role of the state in responding to environmental incidents.
5. Applying best available techniques (BATs), environmental audit are two effective tools in environmental control for both managers and investors.
Application of BATs (Article 105) is a regulation that catches up with technology-based management methods to help improve production efficiency, energy saving waste treatment, increase proactivity in pollution control based on the use of best available technology, consistent with general economic conditions, as well as investment capacity, that means, actively controlling over time the entire production process, environmental treatment of the establishment. An environmental audit (Article 74) is a tool to help investors recognize the changes of input factors in the production process in order to propose measures to improve efficiency of production and waste treatment. Since then, both managers and investors will be more proactive in controlling environmental issues at the facility, and also have tools to determine the level of pollution of the production facility based on the results of environmental audit. Accordingly, it will be easy to have measures to intervene, handle, or provide evidence to claim damages caused by the acts of causing environmental pollution and proactively prevent, respond to, and remedy the environment caused by environmental incidents. Although the regulations applying the two tools mentioned above depend on the application roadmap (for BAT) and encourage production, business and service establishments to carry out environmental audits by themselves, but this provision will be an important basis for proactively and effectively implementing environmental control.
6. Economic and financial tools and the formation of effective and practical environmental protection resources under the new mechanism
Payment for natural ecosystem services (Article 138) means the payment by an organization or individual using natural ecosystem services to an organization or individual that provides value of the environment and landscape created by natural ecosystems to protect, maintain and develop natural ecosystems.
Green procurement (Article 146) is regulated to keep pace with the world's trends in the procurement and consumption of environmentally friendly products and services in order to minimize the adverse impact on health and the environment.
Exploitation, use and development of natural capital (Article 147) is an important basis for sustainable exploitation, protection and efficient conservation of land, water, forests, aquatic resources, minerals, fossil fuels, natural energy sources and natural ecosystem services.
Green credit (Article 149), Green bonds (Article 150) are not defined in the Law, but through the green credit, it can be seen that green credit, green bonds are loans for projects related to Environmental protection, climate change adaptation, resource efficiency, energy saving.
These new regulations will open a mechanism to form and access capital for investment in green projects; activities and projects to maintain, protect, conserve and restore natural ecosystems, initially supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy, a green economy, ensuring rapid, efficient and sustainable economic development, balancing human development needs and interests with the requirement of protecting nature; bring people live in harmony with nature.
7. Mechanism for ensuring compliance with regulations of the LEP, ensuring feasibility, strictness and meeting requirements of new generation FTAs in general as well as CPTPP, EVFTA in particular.
Strict compliance with the law on environmental protection is always in place, in which many regulations on environmental protection are highly appreciated, adjusting social relationships. However, compliance with regulations on environmental protection in our country remains low. Facing increasingly polluted environment; the decline of the ecosystem, complicated developments of climate change, at the same time meeting the constitutional requirement of the People's right to live in a healthy environment and increasing compliance with environmental laws of FTAs (such as CPTPP and EVFTA), it requires that the strict enforcement of the law on environmental protection is more urgent than ever. Therefore, throughout the Law on Environmental Protection are the regulations to ensure the feasibility as well as the mechanism to effectively implement, a few important institutions such as:
Regarding the functions and state management organization on the environment: It can be seen that the Law has sharply reduced fragmentation in environmental management, especially in solid waste management, in which the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is the leading agency. Eliminate the fragmentation in the environmental license level, whereby the MONRE is only authority to grant the environmental license, which includes the granting of permits for discharging wastewater into water sources and discharging wastewater into irrigation works. At the same time, the system of state agencies on environmental protection will continue to be consolidated in a streamlined direction. This is an important basis to organize the implementation of the law on environmental protection effectively, synchronously and strictly.
Regarding environmental inspection and supervision: In recent years, inspection activities have been implemented in a focus manner, then with the provisions of the Law, inspection activities will continue to be implemented strictly, increased supervision for project groups or facilities, production and business according to the above project classification.
Regulations on project classification according to environmental criteria and regulations applying this classification are a measure to individualize projects and facilities with the risk of causing environmental pollution according to each level to take appropriate and effective measures to avoid indiscriminating which will destroy investors' efforts to develop production, business, services as well as environmental protection, thereby improving the feasibility of regulations.
Promoting the socialization of environmental protection activities is the biggest breakthrough in the Law to thoroughly implement the principles of environmental protection, which is the responsibility and rights of each individual, organization, community, and state agency. The State only acts as an agency to promulgate and enforce policies and laws; is the arbitrator, is the agency handling the violation. Self-management of environmental protection is given to the residential community, such as monitoring the classification and littering of domestic waste; supervise the environmental protection of projects, production, business and service establishments and the Ministry has a mechanism to receive, process and respond to feedback and recommendations of organizations, individuals and communities on the activities that causing environmental pollution in particular and violating the law on environmental protection. The most important socialization mechanisms are those related to finance, economy and new tools in environmental protection, including: payment mechanism for the collection and treatment of domestic solid waste is based on the amount of waste; Producer and importer's open responsibility mechanism for products and packaging after use (EPR mechanism); Deposit mechanism for environmental protection; Payment mechanism for environmental incident response, environmental recovery after incidents; Compensation mechanism for environmental damage; Liability insurance for damages caused by environmental incidents; Payments for natural ecosystem services ... are mechanisms that directly affect the pocket of people who exploit and use the environment, causing environmental pollution, and are also regulations to encourage investment in environmental rehabilitation and restoration, nature conservation ... will be an important mechanism to fundamentally change perceptions and behaviors toward environment of each individual and organization while also promoting the implementation of environmental protection, with resources to prevent, respond, overcome, improve and restore the environment.
Thus, it can be seen that the LEP 2020 has amended and supplemented the most basic, substantial and practical issues, basically meeting the requirements and expectations of environmental protection, exploitation and conservation of nature in sustainable manner in the future. Simultaneously it catches up with the trends of environmental protection, sustainable development of countries around the world and international commitments to which Việt Nam is a member. However, these new regulations do not come into effect right away but need continuous enforcement efforts for many years to see results such as the payment mechanism for collection and treatment services of domestic solid waste treatment based on waste quantity or EPR mechanism. In the face of the strong economic development, population growth and urban development, the pressure on the natural and environment is increasing. More than ever, the application of these new environmental protection regulations is more and more necessary and requires unlimited support from each citizen, community; the uninterrupted determination of the Government, but the key role is that of the head to gradually improve the living environment, providing a balanced and harmonious development between human and nature.
Nguyễn Thi
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE)
