On the morning of September 22, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection.
At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Le Trong Yen presented the Government's Submission on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection.
According to the submission, the draft law aims to continue to strongly reform administrative procedures, especially in terms of environmental impact assessment (EIA), issuance of environmental permits (GPMT); thorough decentralization and delegation of power to localities.
Completing the pollution control mechanism, improving environmental quality; strengthening prevention, forecasting, warning and publicizing information about the environment.
The draft law adds many new contents such as supplementing management of mine waste soil and rock, tailings, non-biodegradable pollutants, import of scrap and electronic data.
In addition, supplement the capacity requirements of environmental consulting organizations, clarify the responsibilities of project owners and related organizations in implementing environmental administrative procedures.
The draft law also supplements the subjects entitled to incentives and support on environmental protection to be businesses trading in climate-friendly technology, minimizing the use of controlled substances, and sustainable cooling.
At the same time, supplementing bank guarantees when importing scrap as raw materials for production, helping to reduce capital pressure, create favorable conditions for businesses and comply with international trade practices.
A noteworthy point of this draft law is to supplement monitoring of pollution risks, degradation, environmental incidents, strengthen identification, warning, prevention and management according to risks and compliance levels.
Supplementing control of emission sources according to total emissions of pollutants, associated with control by region, area and the reception capacity of surface water environment.
The draft Law stipulates the principle of delineating the authority to appraise EIA reports according to the level of risk of adverse environmental impacts and the specific nature of the project (state secret factor) and assigns the Government to delineate details.
In addition to adding some new contents, the draft law also abolishes regulations on re-issuance of environmental permits; certification of eligibility for environmental monitoring service operations.
Abolishing regulations on the selection of forms of domestic solid waste management at agencies, organizations, production, business, and centralized service establishments, and industrial clusters that generate waste from domestic and office activities with small volumes.
Preliminary appraisal, Member of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Nguyen Thanh Hai said that the Standing Committee highly appreciates the breakthrough reform step of reducing subjects who must be appraised for environmental impact assessment, must have environmental permits and promote decentralization to provincial-level People's Committees.
However, it is proposed to supplement a supervisory mechanism from the Central Government, alternative management measures to avoid lax management; clearly stipulate the mechanism for individualizing the responsibility of local heads if environmental incidents occur.
At the same time, it is necessary to review regulations on the responsibility of heads of local authorities when not properly performing environmental protection tasks, avoiding overly broad responsibility regulations, ensuring fairness and personalizing substantive responsibility.
