Ministry of Industry and Trade: Lack of funding makes it difficult to fulfill environmental protection responsibilities

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Truong Thanh Hoai reported at the working session on the afternoon of July 21.

On the afternoon of July 21, at the National Assembly House, the thematic supervision delegation "Implementation of policies and laws on environmental protection since the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 took effect" worked with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Truong Thanh Hoai said that in the period of 2022 - 2024, the total environmental career budget assigned to the Ministry only reached 36.85 billion VND, equivalent to more than 12 billion VND/year. With this budget, the Ministry cannot fully implement the assigned tasks; many tasks are prolonged, even eliminated, causing waste and reducing implementation efficiency.

Meanwhile, industries managed by the ministry such as chemicals, steel, thermal power, mining, etc. generate large amounts of waste and pose a high risk of environmental pollution.

HOAN LÊ.jpg — Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan chaired the working session.

Although the ministry has made many efforts to control risks and assess environmental impacts at power centers and key industries, the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection and Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP do not stipulate the ministry's responsibility to inspect environmental protection for industrial production activities.

According to Mr. Truong Thanh Hoai, this is one of the limitations of the legal system in the work of inspecting and supervising the implementation of laws on environmental protection, reducing the effectiveness and efficiency and lacking coordination between agencies in this work.

Another worrying issue is that the rate of industrial clusters with centralized wastewater treatment systems is still very low. The rate of industrial clusters with wastewater treatment systems in operation is currently only 31.5% (228/724 clusters).

Another concern is that the rate of industrial clusters with centralized wastewater treatment systems is still very low. The rate of industrial clusters with wastewater treatment systems in operation is currently only 31.5% (228/724 clusters). Developing and implementing a greenhouse gas emission reduction plan - an important task under the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection - requires high technical requirements, large-scale data and large funding. However, currently, both funding sources and human resource quality have not met practical requirements.

Leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed amending the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 in the direction of clearly defining the responsibilities of ministries and branches in environmental protection work; at the same time, comprehensively amending Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, ensuring clear assignment and decentralization, linked with resources and effective coordination mechanisms.

Emphasizing that the industry and trade sector plays a pivotal role in economic growth with its management scope covering the fields of energy, heavy industry, processing, goods circulation, import and export, etc., Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan pointed out a number of shortcomings in environmental protection work in this field.

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade to, on the one hand, strengthen its law enforcement capacity, ensure compliance with and fully implement the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, and on the other hand, proactively review and propose amendments and supplements to laws and decrees to remove current obstacles and policy "bottlenecks".

In particular, the ministry needs stronger solutions in energy transition and pollution control in electricity production. The implementation of the 8th Power Plan must be linked to the development of renewable energy, biomass power, waste-to-energy, and the gradual reduction of coal-fired thermal power plants.

LÊ QUANG HUY.jpg — Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy, Deputy Head of the Standing Delegation of the Supervisory Delegation

Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy, Deputy Head of the monitoring delegation, requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade and members of the delegation to continue to coordinate to complete information, data, and assessments on environmental protection work; send a supplementary report to the monitoring delegation before August 2, in which it is noted to clearly and specifically state recommendations on environmental protection mechanisms and policies that need to be reviewed, revised, and supplemented.

MR. PHUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/bo-cong-thuong-thieu-kinh-phi-kho-hoan-thanh-trach-nhiem-bao-ve-moi-truong-post804764.html