Comments on the draft Law on Environmental Protection (amended)

Attending the conference on Nghe An side were comrade Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, along with representatives of relevant departments and branches. Photo: D.C

The current Law on Environmental Protection was passed by the 13th National Assembly at its 7th session, replacing the 2005 Law on Environmental Protection and taking effect from January 1, 2015. After nearly 5 years of implementation, the Law has contributed to raising public awareness, creating strong changes, attracting the attention of the whole society about responsibility and action in environmental protection. However, the implementation process shows that the Law has revealed limitations and inadequacies.

Officers of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment's Land Management Division discuss land management issues. Photo: Thanh Le

The Draft Law on Environmental Protection (amended) was consulted online by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for about 3 months, from mid-December 2019. During this period, many opinions from people and businesses participated in contributing to amending the Draft.

The draft Law on Environmental Protection (amended) consists of 16 chapters and 192 articles, specifying 13 groups of policies that have been assessed for impact, including: The contents have been rearranged in the direction of making the goal of protecting environmental components the central content, deciding on other policies; regulating management policies according to the implementation process of investment projects from preparation, putting into operation until the end of the project; strongly reformed, cutting over 40% of administrative procedures, reducing the time to carry out administrative procedures... The Law takes effect from July 1, 2021.

At the Conference, with the point of not trading the environment for economic growth, representatives of local leaders highly appreciated and agreed on the content of the Law Project, and actively contributed to adding a number of issues to complete the Law Project on Environmental Protection (amended). Specifically: The Law on Environmental Protection (amended) needs to stipulate more content on management and cooperation between provinces and cities in managing air quality by region, adding the content of "assessing the carrying capacity of the environment" to the air quality management plan.

The bill also needs to stipulate environmental protection tax according to the "polluter pays" principle to encourage polluters to reduce waste and increase revenue for the state budget by including environmental costs in product prices. It also adds the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in reviewing and providing a roadmap to tighten emission standards and regulations for coal-fired thermal power plants and ambient air standards...

Officials of Tuong Duong District People's Committee and Ban Ve Hydropower Company inspect waste in Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir in January 2020. Photo: Contributor

Concluding the conference, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha highly appreciated the contributions of localities and emphasized that the draft Law on Environmental Protection (amended) is really necessary. The amendment of the Law on Environmental Protection aims to create a revolution in the thinking, management mindset, awareness and actions of each citizen.

Therefore, on the basis of absorbing the comments, we will continue to review to ensure that this draft law is consistent with the legal system, ensuring specificity and feasibility, continuing to assess the impact of 13 policy groups related to socio-economics, finance, budget, continuing to review concepts, interpretation of terms... This draft law will be completed soon to submit to the National Assembly for first comments at the 9th Session.