Environmental Impact Assessment undergoes major reform

Release Date:

2024-09-26 16:57

Source:

Environmental Impact Assessment undergoes major reform

Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Notice on Further Deepening the Reform of Environmental Impact Assessment" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). The Notice proposes strengthening the quality supervision of EIA documents. For EIA units with good credit, reduce the proportion and frequency of re-examinations and spot checks to achieve a "no disturbance if no issues" approach; EIA units included in the "blacklist" are prohibited from practicing by law; strengthen accountability and carry out special rectification work on falsification issues by third-party environmental service agencies.

Notice on Further Deepening the Reform of Environmental Impact Assessment

Ecology and Environment Departments (Bureaus) of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Ecology and Environment Bureau of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

　　To implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, to implement the decisions and deployments of the National Ecological Environment Protection Conference and the Party Central Committee and State Council on optimizing the business environment, deepen the reform of environmental impact assessment, and strengthen the preventive role of environmental impact assessment at the source, the following matters are hereby notified.

　　 I. Overall Approach to the Reform

　　Coordinate and optimize the hierarchical and classified management of EIAs to better match the grading management with grassroots management capabilities. Major ecological and environmental impact projects shall be managed by ecological environment departments at both the ministry and provincial levels; achieve better integration of EIA classification management with the pollutant discharge permit system, significantly reduce the number of EIAs for pollution impact construction projects, fully utilize ecological environment zoning control and planning EIAs to guide project environmental access, continuously enhance informatization support for EIAs, continuously improve the quality of EIA documents, and significantly enhance the overall effectiveness of the source prevention system.

　　II. Optimize the Graded Approval of Construction Project EIAs

　　 (1) Strengthen provincial-level approval management of major project EIAs. Except for construction projects whose EIAs are approved by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, projects with significant adverse ecological and environmental impacts should, in principle, have their EIAs approved by provincial ecological environment departments. These include key industrial projects in fields such as refining, ethylene, steel, coking, coal chemical industry, coal-fired power generation, non-ferrous metal smelting, cement clinker, flat glass, reservoirs, water diversion projects, conventional hydropower stations, pumped storage power stations, mineral resource development, hazardous waste disposal, land reclamation projects with significant ecological impacts, projects adopting new production processes and technologies, and projects with large uncertainties in pollutant discharge and ecological environmental impacts (see Attachment 1 for the directory). For construction projects outside this directory, provinces may impose stricter requirements on specific industries according to local conditions but must not arbitrarily delegate EIA approval authority layer by layer. For provinces (regions) such as Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia, EIAs for projects with significant ecological environmental impacts such as mineral resource development are recommended to be approved by provincial ecological environment departments.

　　 (2) Conduct assessment and adjustment of EIA approval authority below the provincial level. Provincial ecological environment departments should organize the review of project EIA approval authority and evaluate the effectiveness of authority transfer to ensure alignment with grassroots capabilities. Except for construction projects whose EIAs are approved by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and provincial ecological environment departments, other construction projects preparing environmental impact reports should, in principle, have their EIAs approved by ecological environment departments of prefecture-level cities (districts). Prefecture-level ecological environment departments with districts should, in principle, only delegate specific approval work for environmental impact report forms to district and county ecological environment departments and must not delegate approval work for environmental impact reports to district and county ecological environment departments. Provincial ecological environment departments should effectively evaluate the approval effectiveness of regional projects involved in centralized administrative approval reforms. If the administrative approval bureau's EIA approval capacity is insufficient or quality control is difficult, improvement suggestions should be submitted to the provincial people's government.

　　 III. Carry out Pilot Projects to Optimize Classification Management of Construction Project EIAs

　　 (1) Select some prefecture-level cities to carry out pilot projects for optimizing EIA classification management. Beijing, Hebei Province, Jilin Province, Fujian Province, Guangdong Province, Sichuan Province, Shaanxi Province, and other 7 provinces (cities) ecological environment departments (bureaus) are requested to comprehensively consider economic development and environmental management levels and select 2 typical prefecture-level cities (districts) in each to carry out pilot work throughout the region. The main tasks are to explore canceling EIAs for some projects preparing environmental impact report forms in pilot cities (districts), formulate environmental access guidelines for pilot industries, explore optimization of total pollutant emission indicators, strengthen ecological environment zoning control and planning EIA guidance services for project site selection, and enhance pollutant discharge permit and law enforcement supervision. The pilot work plan is in Attachment 2.

　　 (2) Select some industrial parks to carry out pilot projects for optimizing EIA classification management. Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, Hunan Province, Chongqing City, and other 6 provinces (cities) ecological environment departments (bureaus) are requested to organize the selection of 2-3 industrial parks each to carry out pilot work. The main tasks are to explore canceling EIAs for some projects preparing environmental impact report forms in pilot parks, organize the formulation and improvement of environmental access lists for pilot parks, explore establishing precise accounting, optimized allocation, and dynamic management mechanisms for park pollutant reduction amounts and permitted emissions of enterprises entering the park based on environmental quality improvement goals; explore improving pollutant discharge permit management, implement ecological environment zoning control and relevant planning EIA requirements for project site selection, and study and determine permitted emissions based on environmental quality improvement goals; strengthen advance service management of pollutant discharge permits to ensure the acceptance and supplementation of environmental access management for pilot industry projects; explore strengthening "one certificate" supervision of pollutant discharge permits and strictly investigate and deal with enterprises discharging pollutants without permits or not according to permits. The pilot work plan is in Attachment 3.

　　 IV. Carry out Pilot Projects for Standardized Preparation of EIA Documents and Intelligent Assisted Approval

　　Select Haidian District in Beijing, Hangzhou City in Zhejiang Province, Xiamen City in Fujian Province, Chengdu City in Sichuan Province, and other 4 pilot cities (districts), screening industries with simple processes, light environmental impacts, and mature and reliable pollution prevention measures to carry out pilot work. The main task is to promote the improvement of EIA document quality. First, achieve standardized filling of basic information. Through informatization means, enable enterprises to select and fill in relevant information online, assist in generating EIA documents, simplify EIA document preparation content, and improve preparation efficiency. Second, promote intelligent site selection demonstration. Integrate spatial data such as ecological environment zoning control, ecological environment functional zoning, and element management, enable enterprises to select project addresses, check industry categories, fill in basic information such as construction content and scale, assess the feasibility of project site selection, and generate content analyzing the rationality of site selection. Third, improve the standardization level of prediction and evaluation. Embed EIA prediction models and parameter systems, call up compliant automatic monitoring data or monitoring data from surrounding related parks and projects, connect engineering analysis content and data on current environmental quality, environmental sensitive targets, and environmental infrastructure, and complete environmental impact prediction and evaluation online. Fourth, promote intelligent assisted EIA approval. Sort out historical project approval results of pilot industries to form approval rules. Using EIA documents as the analysis object, through intelligent search engine technology, extract key information such as project location, construction content, key processes, and characteristic pollutants from EIA documents, compare and analyze according to relevant industry management requirements, and generate auxiliary EIA approval opinions in the prescribed content format for reference in final approval opinion formulation. The pilot work plan is in Attachment 4.

　　 V. Strengthen Organizational Guarantee

　　 (1) Strengthen organizational leadership. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will establish a pilot guarantee mechanism for environmental impact assessment (EIA) reform, providing full-process tracking and guidance for the pilot work. The work plan is attached as Appendix 5. Provincial-level ecological environment departments should strengthen the overall coordination and implementation of reform tasks. For the optimization and adjustment of project EIA approval authority, they should fully utilize the national unified declaration and approval system for construction project EIAs, conduct comprehensive assessments of approval capabilities at all levels, and scientifically optimize and adjust approval authorities. Provincial-level ecological environment departments undertaking pilot tasks should carefully organize pilot cities to formulate pilot work plans, improve work mechanisms, designate staff, detail pilot tasks, work progress, division of responsibilities, and expected outcomes to ensure orderly and steady progress of the pilot.

　　 (2) Strengthen reform guarantees. Provincial-level ecological environment departments should deepen the integration and coordination of ecological environment zoning control, industrial park planning EIAs, construction project EIAs, pollution discharge permits, and pollution rights trading systems, strengthening park planning EIAs and environmental access management for projects entering parks. They should enhance technical evaluation capabilities, strengthen key EIA technology research and development, and improve the overall effectiveness of the source prevention system. Departments responsible for project EIA approvals at all levels should be incorporated into policy guidance, business training, EIA document review, and information-based supervision systems to ensure all project EIAs are accepted and approved through the national unified declaration and approval system for construction project EIAs, with relevant information shared to the online investment project approval and supervision platform, achieving unified standards and standardized control.

　　 (3) Strengthen supervision of EIA document quality. Ecological environment departments at all levels should place greater emphasis on improving the quality of EIA documents, strictly controlling access and supervision. During the approval process, supervision should include whether EIA units implement environmental impact assessment procedures, whether the compilation leader participates throughout the preparation of the environmental impact report (form), and other related matters. If relevant archives or materials are falsified or if there is intentional violation of work procedures or obviously false basic data, strict legal action should be taken. Implement a credit supervision mechanism: for EIA units with good credit, reduce the proportion and frequency of rechecks and spot checks to achieve a "no disturbance if no issues" approach; for EIA units on the "blacklist," prohibit their practice by law; for EIA units with poor credit, the municipal ecological environment department where they are located should conduct annual on-site inspections to ensure they meet basic technical capabilities and other conditions. Strengthen accountability, carry out in-depth special rectification of fraud by third-party environmental service agencies, promptly detect and severely punish typical fraud cases as stipulated in the "Opinions on Severely Punishing Fraud and Improving EIA Quality," strictly enforce responsibilities of construction units and EIA units, implement a "double penalty system" for related units and responsible persons according to law, enforce lifelong accountability in accordance with Article 32 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law, pursue criminal responsibility if a crime is suspected, strictly hold technical evaluation units and approval departments accountable, and widely conduct typical case warning education.

　　 (4) Work time limit requirements. Provincial-level ecological environment departments should complete the optimization and adjustment plan for project EIA approval authority by the end of October 2024 and submit it to the provincial people's government for adjustment regulations according to law; by the end of December, report the results of the optimized and adjusted project EIA approval authority approved by the provincial people's government to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment; if local laws or government regulations need to be amended, adjust the EIA approval authority according to legal procedures. Provincial-level ecological environment departments undertaking pilot tasks should complete the pilot implementation plan within two months after the issuance of this notice and submit it to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and submit the pilot work summary report by the end of September 2025.

　Ministry of Ecology and Environment

　　September 13, 2024

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