Environmental protection plans set to be a must

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Article 21 of the draft new Law on Environmental Protection (LEP) being considered by the National Assemly and expected to be adopted in May 2014, states that after an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report is approved and the project comes into operation, the project owner would be forced to develop an environmental protection plan.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) has proposed that project developers should draft compulsory environmental protection plans, but the plans would not have to be appraised and approved by local agencies in order to make businesses more responsive to environmental concerns.

These plans will replace the existing environmental protection commitments as currently regulated in the current LEP 2005.

The proposed change has been triggered as MoNRE figures revealed that 70 per cent of investors consistently failed to meet even basic voluntary commitments on the environment. The council overseeing the drafting of the new LEP under the Ministry of Justice supports this provision.

However, this regulation has received mixed responses.

“We currently lack an efficient tool to manage environmental issues at businesses. So the fact that these firms are required to draft and implement environmental protection plans is a very good idea to curb increasing environmental pollution,” said Duong Thanh An, deputy director of Vietnam Environment Administration’s Policy and Legislation Department.

“However, how to effectively implement these plans would need to be clarified for the new LEP's full enforcement. I think the plans must include activities to prevent pollution, manage waste, and respond to environmental issues. The plans must also embrace activities to protect the environment where these firms are situated,” An stressed.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs suggested that clear regulations on to whom such plans would be submitted were needed, while Tien Giang provincial People’s Committee proposed that provinces, cities, and districts should also be forced to draft environmental protection plans. It was argued that this would provide a very important legal basis to force local authorities to protect their local environment.

Hanoi’s People’s Committee commented that the provision of Article 21 was a “new issue” but “raised without sufficient detail”. The drafted new LEP should make clear the timeframe for such plans, their content, and to whom the plans would be submitted to.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment member Ma Thi Thuy also expressed doubts over the feasibility of the regulation.

“Actually it would be very difficult for firms to create their own environmental protection schemes voluntarily. So what punishments will be enforceable if they don’t? If these plans are not appraised and approved by government agencies, they’ll only receive lip-service from companies,” Thuy said.