Environmental Protection - Shared Responsibility

It is no coincidence that at the upcoming 10th session, the implementation of policies and laws on environmental protection (since the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 took effect) was chosen as the National Assembly's top supervisory topic, although many other issues are also "hot". As Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan, Head of the National Assembly's supervisory delegation, has clearly stated, environmental challenges always pose potential economic, social and political risks if not promptly resolved.

In fact, we have done a lot, but it is still not enough. At the meeting with the monitoring delegation, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Truong Thanh Hoai said that in the 2022-2024 period, the total environmental career budget assigned to the Ministry of Industry and Trade only reached 36.85 billion VND, equivalent to more than 12 billion VND/year. 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. With this level of funding, the ministry cannot fully implement its assigned tasks; many tasks are prolonged, even eliminated, causing waste and reducing implementation efficiency.

Meanwhile, according to a report from the Ministry of Finance , the budget seems to have given significant priority to this work. The total revenue from environmental protection taxes and fees for the 2022-2024 period is about VND 141,118 billion. These revenues are included in the state budget, but implementing the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, the budget plan always sets aside a separate expenditure for environmental protection and the capital increases gradually each year, ensuring no less than 1% of total state budget expenditure.

However, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Thanh Trung acknowledged that the allocation and implementation of the budget is still slow; many annual budgets are canceled. Attracting investment from the private economic sector for waste treatment infrastructure, especially domestic solid waste and urban wastewater, is still limited. Many other shortcomings were also pointed out in a series of meetings with large state-owned corporations such as the Electricity Corporation, the Chemical Corporation, the Coal - Minerals Corporation, the Cement Corporation, etc.

For its part, the representative of the Chemical Group reflected that many new issues, especially technical standards and regulations, have not been issued by the ministries. These include standards and regulations on the treatment of PG gypsum used as filling materials, road foundations, and restoration of areas where mineral exploitation has ended according to the provisions of the law on minerals and meeting environmental protection requirements; guidance on the burial of gypsum waste (PG gypsum) in cases where gypsum waste cannot be used or recycled... Therefore, even with funding, the treatment of the above industrial waste still faces many difficulties.

The allocation of development investment capital, fiscal policies, and financial instruments for environmental protection not only needs to prioritize this area, but also needs to be spent correctly, spent sufficiently, and focused on efficiency. To achieve that goal, the first issue is to ensure a complete, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-implement legal framework. This task alone requires many ministries and sectors to participate.

For example, the Ministry of Finance needs to focus on studying and amending laws on taxes and fees according to market principles, ensuring that polluters must compensate in proportion to the level of harm; at the same time, there should be stronger incentive policies for investment activities in clean technology, recycling, reuse and circular economy. The responsibility to determine the level of harm and propose solutions is the responsibility of specialized ministries such as the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Science and Technology, etc. Monitoring the implementation to promptly detect and strictly handle violations is the responsibility of inspection agencies, law enforcement agencies, elected bodies, and even each citizen.

Environmental protection is a measure of the sustainable development of the country and the planet. This responsibility belongs to no one, but first and foremost to state agencies: establishing a legal framework, allocating resources for implementation, monitoring and promptly handling deviant behaviors.

ANH THU

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/bao-ve-moi-truong-trach-nhiem-chung-post805144.html