REMARKS FOR ENTERPRISES WHEN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT (EIA) IS PREPARED

Enterprises are in progress of application for operation license or investment into scale expansion, productivity improvement, etc.? Enterprises are struggling with difficulties in obtaining environment license? Alternatively, how to prepare Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA)?... Understanding the difficulties faced by the Customers, this detailed and comprehensive article shall be very useful for NGO's Valued Customers!

1. What is EIA report?

EIA refers to analysis, evaluation, identification and forecast of investment project’s environmental impact and release of mitigation measures on adverse environmental impacts.

2. Who should conduct EIA report?

a) Investment project category 1 specified at clause 3, Article 28 of the Law on Environment Protection No. 72/2020/QH14;

Investment project category I refers to project with high risk of adverse impact on environment, including:

The project subject to production, business and services with risk of high scale and capacity environmental pollution; project on hazardous waste treatment services; project on importing wastes as production materials;
The project subject to production, business and services with risk of medium scale and capacity environmental pollution but having environmentally sensitive factors; project not subject to production, business and services with risk of high scale and capacity environmental pollution but having environmentally sensitive factors;
Land use, land with water surface, sea area project with large or medium scale, but having environmentally sensitive factors;
Mineral and water resource exploitation projects with large or medium scale and capacity, but having environmentally sensitive factors;
Project having medium scale land use purpose transfer or higher with environmentally sensitive factors;
The project has large scale displacement and resettlement.

b) Investment project category II specified at points c, d, dd and e, clause 4, Article 28 of the Law on Environment Protection No. 72/2020/QH14.

Land use, land with water surface, sea area project with medium or small scale, but having environmentally sensitive factors;
Mineral and water resource exploitation projects with medium or small scale and capacity, but having environmentally sensitive factors;
Project having small scale land use purpose transfer with environmentally sensitive factors;
The project has medium scale displacement and resettlement.

3. Some notes during launching EIA report:

EIA is initiated by the Project Owner or qualified consultant. EIA is simultaneously launched with FS report or equivalent to the Project’s FS report.
EIA results are shown by EIA report.
Each investment project is required to prepare one EIA Report.

4. Contents of EIA report

a) Origin of investment project, the Project Owner, approval authority of the investment project; legal and technical foundations; EIA method and other applicable methods (if any);

b) Conformity of investment project with the National Plan of Environmental Protection, regional plan, provincial plan and legal regulations on environmental protection and other relevant regulations;

c) Assessment on investment project’s technology selection, works items and operation which may adversely affect the environment;

d) The natural, socio-economic conditions and biodiversity; assessment on environmental condition; identity of affected subjects, environmentally sensitive factors at project site; description of project site conformity;

đ) Identity, assessment and forecast on key environmental impacts and waste arisen by the investment project phase; scale and nature of waste; impacts on biodiversity, natural heritage, historical and cultural relics and other sensitive factors; impacts from site clearance, displacement and resettlement (if any); identify and assessment on possible environment incidents of the investment project;

e) Waste collection, storage and treatment works and measures;

g) Other mitigation measures of adverse impacts on environment applied by the investment project; environmental rehabilitation and improvement options (if any); biodiversity offset options (if any); preventative and response methods of environmental incidents;

h) Environmental monitoring and surveillance program;i) Consultancy results;k) Conclusions, recommendations and undertakings of the Project Owner.

i) Consultancy results;

k) Conclusions, recommendations and undertakings of the Project Owner.

5. Appraisal of EIA report:

Application for appraising Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA) includes:

a) 01 written application for appraising EIA report prepared in the Form No. 05, Appendix IV, Section I of Appendix issued under the Decree No. 40/2019/NĐ-CP;

b) 01 FS report or techno-economic report of the investment project or equivalent documents;

c) 07 copies of Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA) report.

In the event that number of appraisal board members is more than 07 persons, the Project Owner shall further provide the number of EIA report.

6. Authority of appraising EIA report:

a) The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment organizes the appraisal and approval of the project’s EIA report specified at Appendix III, Section I of the Appendix issued under the Decree No. 40/2019/NĐ-CP, except for the projects with the national defense and security nature;

b) The Ministries and ministerial level agencies organize the appraisal and approval of EIA report for the projects under their investment approval authority, except for Appendix III, Section I of the Appendix issued under the Decree No. 40/2019/NĐ-CP.

c) The Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Public Security organize the appraisal and approval of EIA report for the projects under their investment approval authority, except for Appendix III, Section I of the Appendix issued under this Decree.

d) The provincial People's Committee organizes the appraisal and approval of EIA report for investment projects in the area not subject to the application subjects specified at points a, b and c of this clause.

7. Period and schedule of approving EIA report:

a) Appraisal period:

- Appraisal period via the appraisal council of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall not exceed 30 working days since valid documents are fully received.

- Appraisal period via the appraisal council of the Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and Provincial People's Committee shall not exceed 25 working days since valid documents are fully received;

- Appraisal period to approve the consultation of relevant agencies and organizations shall not exceed 20 working days since valid documents are fully received.

- Appraisal results are valid as the basis to issue the decision on approving the EIA report.

b) After EIA report has been appraised with approval results, modification, supplement or approval is not required. When it is obligated to amend or supplement, the appraisal authority shall notify the written appraisal results to the Project Owner within 05 working days since appraisal is ended.

c) In the event that EIA report is required to amend or supplement, the Project Owner shall, not exceeding 12 months since appraisal result notice is received (EIA report completion time is not included into appraisal time), complete the EIA report as required by the appraisal authority and submit the request for approving EIA report to the appraisal authority, including:

01 request for approving EIA report, clearly specifying which contents have been amended and supplemented under the appraisal results, except for the cases that not required to amend or supplement;
EIA report is bound in rigid-back book, the Project Owner signs beneath each page or affixes stamp on adjoining edges of report pages, including appendices with sufficient quantity to submit to the addresses specified at clause 13 of this Article, enclosed with 01 CD disc, containing 01 electronic file in “.doc” format, presenting the scanned contents of entire report (including appendices).

d) Upon receipt of EIA approval request submitted by the Project Owner, the appraisal agency is responsible for:

Within 20 working days since receipt of EIA report approval request, the President or head of the appraisal agency promulgates the decision on approving the EIA report in the Form No. 06, Appendix VI, Section I of Appendix issued under this Decree;
In the event that it is not eligible for approval or not approved, within 10 working days since EIA report approval request is received, the appraisal authority shall release the statements, specifying the root causes, to the Project Owner.

e) EIA report appraisal agency shall publicly announce the approval decision and EIA report on their website and submit the approval decision and EIA report to the Project Owner and relevant agencies.

8. Legal foundations:

The Law on Environmental Protection dated 23 June 2014;

The Law on Environmental Protection dated 17 November 2020;

The Decree No. 18/2015/ND-CP dated 14 February 2015;

The Decree No. 40/2019/ND-CP dated 13 May 2019;

Source: NGO