MEP issued a circular recently which requires environmental protection departments at all levels seriously study and implement the Regulations on Planning Environmental Impact Assessment and practically enhance planning EIA work.
The Circular points out that the State Council issued the Regulations on Planning Environmental Impact Assessment (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) on August 17, which will be put into effect as of October 1, 2009. This is an important progress of environmental legislation in China, marking a new stage when environmental protection is integrated into comprehensive decision making. Environmental protection departments at all levels should learn the spirit of the Regulations, and focus our attention to the implementation put forward the outlook on scientific development, building ecological culture and exploration of new path of environmental protection with Chinese characteristics, accurately understand the historical task of planning EIA under the new situation, fully play the role of planning EIA in controlling environmental pollution & preventing ecological damage at source and facilitate comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of the economy, society and environment.
The Circular calls for environmental protection departments at all levels concentrate their efforts on doing well the publicity and materialization work of the Regulations some periods before and after official implementation of the Regulations. They should not only comprehensively publicize the significance, main contents, procedure requirements and legal responsibilities of the Regulations, but also focus on its efforts in improving the institution, capacity and technology relevant to materialization of the Regulations. They should do well not only the recent publicity work to improve the awareness of each department and the public, but also the supporting system, management procedures and materialization of long-term mechanism. They should not only strengthen the publicity & implementation of the Regulations in line with unified arrangement, but also take full advantage of the initiatives of environmental protection departments at all levels and jointly promote the implementation of the Regulations.
The Circular stresses that environmental protection departments at all levels should, based on the overall arrangement of MEP and practical situation of local conditions, make careful arrangement with materialization at all levels, carry out each provision of the Regulations in an all round way and enhance planning EIA in such areas as mechanism, procedures, management and experience. They should do well the following work:
1) Establish a mechanism where all relevant departments pay attention to planning EIA. The authority should actively facilitate the joint mechanism involving such departments as development & reform, planning, land resources, transportation and water resources to promote early intervention of planning EIA. We will take such measures as interaction with plan development, and exploration of the establishment of follow-up assessment mechanism for planning EIA. Selecting mature areas in economic development zones and industrial parks (zones), MEP in cooperation with relevant departments will facilitate trial work on follow-up assessment, find out the problems in time, summarize the experience and provide guidance for the development of relevant plans for the “12th Five-Years”.
2) Further standardize management procedures for planning EIA. Based on the requirements of the Regulations, we will sort out relevant provisions of existing regulations on planning EIA as soon as possible，further revise & detail the specific requirements for assessment, review and follow-up assessment, and practically shoulder the responsibility for convening a review group to review the environment impact statement of special plans.
3) Improve the joint mechanism for planning EIA and project EIA. Based on the provisions of the Regulations, the conclusions of planning EIA will serve as important bases for the EIA of construction projects covered by the planning. A joint mechanism for planning EIA and project EIA will be set up. The authority will not handle the EIA documents of any construction projects in the planning not subject to EIA. In case of any major adjustments or revision of an approved plan in such areas as implementation scope, valid period, scale, structure and layout, new or supplementary EIA should be done for the plan. The authority will not accept the EIA documents of any construction projects covered in the planning not subject to EIA. The contents of EIA of construction projects covered in a planning subject to EIA may be simplified based on the analysis & conclusion of planning EIA. The review comments should make clear the simplified contents and those in need of further assessment. 4) Vigorously promote planning EIA in key regions. Taking the integrity and long-term environmental impacts of the region and ecosystem of watersheds as the focus of the assessment, we will practically enhance the planning EIA at regional and river basin levels. We should mainstream planning EIA into urban master plan and the development of relevant construction plan as early as possible to improve the quality of urban plan EIA. Focusing on ensuring eco service functions of resource development regions, we will continuously strengthen the effectiveness of planning EIA of mineral resource development. Taking good coordination of the relations between planning and important ecological-sensitive areas as a starting point, we will do well planning EIA for transportation and important infrastructure. Taking environmental rationality of the layout, industrial structure and important environmental infrastructure of industrial parks (zones) as the top priority of environmental assessment, we will strictly standardize planning EIA of various industrial development parks (zones). At present, we should further strengthen EIA of the plans of industries with excessive capacity such as iron & steel and cement, take EIA of regional industrial planning as the pre-conditions for accepting & reviewing environment impact statements of high-energy-consumption projects in the region so as to avoid new regional environmental problems resulting from excessive capacity or redundant construction.
5) Further improve public participation. Taking into account the characteristics of plan and planning EIA, we will pay more attention to the professional comments & suggestions of relevant departments and experts for the plan or planning with strong policy and macro nature. Also, we will pay attention to the comments & suggestions of the communities with immediate environmental interests on specific development & construction plan. The adoption of public comments and the explanations of relevant reasons should be an important content of the review comments.