PHAM DIEM
State and Law Institute of Vietnam
Environmental standards constitute one of the most basic and vital institutions of Vietnam’s environmental protection law.
Under the 1993 Environmental Protection Law, environmental standards were defined as norms and permitted limits to be used as a basis for environmental management. Those standards were then defined in a more comprehensive and explicit manner in the 2005 Environmental Protection Law as the permitted limits and norms for the quality of the surrounding environment, including the content of pollutants in waste, set by competent state agencies as a basis for environmental management and protection.
In environmental management and protection, environmental standards serve as both a technical tool and as legal grounds for environmental management by the State. Basing themselves on environmental standards, competent state agencies can determine exactly environmental quality and be aware of whether a certain environmental component in a specified locality is polluted, what is the extent of pollution, and who is the polluter. Only on the basis of environmental standards can the state have grounds to assess the actual environmental status, forecast environmental developments, control pollution, apply measures to prevent and remedy pollution, appraise environmental impact assessment reports, and determine legal liability of persons who violate environmental law. At the same time, also on the basis of environmental standards, organizations and individuals can be aware of what environmental conditions they are entitled to live in and the extent of environmental impacts they are allowed to make.
Environmental standards are technical norms of a legal nature, i.e., a combination between the environment’s natural properties (like chemical-physical properties) and the state’s legal provisions in written form. Regulations are issued by the state to govern human acts of exploitation and use of environmental components.
In order to attain these properties, the establishment and application of environmental standards under Vietnamese law must adhere to specified principles.
The 1993 Environmental Protection Law laid down five principles for the establishment of environmental standards:
1. Environmental standards must be compatible with the level of national socio-economic development and harmonious with international and regional environmental standards. This principle aims to ensure the enforceability of environmental standards. Reality in Vietnam shows that too low environmental standards may directly exert adverse impacts on human health while too high standards may not be suitable to the socio-economic conditions of a developing country. Vietnam’s environmental standards must be designed toward harmony with international and regional ones so that they can help promote the national economic development and facilitate Vietnam’s establishment of environmental standards with technical assistance, managerial experience and funding sources from international environment organizations.
2. Environmental standards must ensure the balance between investors’ business and economic benefits and the country’s environmental benefits. In fact, the higher the economic development and the greater the business possibilities, the greater the demand for exploitation and use of environmental components and the greater the danger of exhaustion of natural resources and environmental deterioration. But, unless the State creates conditions for investors to rationally exploit and use natural resources, the national economy can hardly develop. Environmental standards should therefore be established to settle the contradictions and the clash between environmental protection and economic development and to harmonize investors’ business possibilities and the country’s environmental benefits. They must assure the rational and economical exploitation and use of natural resources and sustainable environmental protection.
3. Environmental standards must truly serve as a tool for environmental management. Environmental standards, while making up a section of environmental law, do not bear the characteristics of common language but are denoted by specific norms and indicators in scientific language. As a result, they must be expressed in an adequate, accurate and reasonable manner and gradually perfected from low to high and from simplicity to complexity, in order to suite each socio-economic development stage.
4. The establishment of environmental standards must be based on the environmental impacts on human health and senses. Human beings occupy the central position and are the prime target of environmental protection, and human health is a gauge of environmental quality. Environmental standards must therefore be suitable to the survival and development of human beings. The environmental impacts on human health and healthful senses are usually divided into five classes for use as a basis for establishment of environmental standards:
- An ideally clean environment;
- An environment which is pleasing to human body;
- An environment which causes chronic diseases;
- An environment which causes acute diseases; and,
- An environment with fatal hazards.
5. The establishment of environmental standards must be based on the environmental impacts on the ecosystem and materials. Environmental standards aim to protect not only the human being but also the ecosystem and materials in industrial activities and daily life. Environmental changes may yet directly affect human health but have exerted impacts on vegetation, animals, industrial and building materials in traffic or engineering works, etc.
The 2005 Environmental Protection Law spelled out three principles for establishment and application of environmental standards:
1. The establishment and application of environmental standards must satisfy environmental protection objectives and prevent environmental pollution, degradation and incidents;
2. Environmental standards must be promulgated in a timely manner, enforceable, suitable to the socio-economic development and technological level of the country, and satisfy international economic integration requirements;
3. The establishment and application of environmental standards must be suitable to regional and branch characteristics, production, business and service types and technologies.
There has been a substantial development and renewal of the institutions of environment standards from the 1993 Environmental Protection Law to the 2005 Environmental Protection Law. Above all, while the 1993 Environmental Protection Law laid down only principles for the establishment of environmental standards, the 2005 Law provided principles for both establishment and application of environmental standards. While the 1993 Law still failed to clearly distinguish principles from objectives and methods of establishment of environmental standards, the 2005 Law provided overall and sound principles for establishment and application of environmental standards, including a new principle that the establishment and application of environmental standards must be suitable to regional and sectoral characteristics, production, business and service types and technologies. This principle stems from the current socio-economic development gap between regions, areas and sectors throughout the country.
Major progress has been made in the 2005 Environmental Protection Law which provides for the first time a system of national environmental standards and the content and requirements of each national environmental standard.
Accordingly, Vietnam’s system of national environmental standards consists of standards of surrounding environmental quality and standards of wastes. Surrounding environmental quality standards specify the permitted limit values of environmental norms in conformity with the purpose of using environmental components. Waste standards must specify the maximum values of pollution norms of waste so as not to cause harms to human beings and organisms.
Contents of national environmental standards include:
- Class of standard;
- Environmental norms and limit values;
- Subjects of standard application;
- Procedures and guiding methods of standard application;
- Conditions required for standard application; and,
- Methods of measurement, sampling and analysis.
Prior to the promulgation of the 2005 Environmental Protection Law, such issues as the system of national environmental standards and contents of national environmental standards had been governed only by Government regulations.
In Vietnam, the competence to promulgate environmental standards and control their application belongs to the executive body. The list of national environmental standards was promulgated for the first time on October 18, 1994, as an annex to Government Decree No. 175/CP. Since then, various environmental standards have been repeatedly amended and supplemented to suit practical conditions.
The principal measure to control the observance of environmental standards is the grant or withdrawal of the environmental standard conformity certificate by competent state agencies to production, business or service establishments. The environmental standard conformity certificates indicate environmental norms that those establishments must attain throughout the course of operation and existence. Under Vietnamese law, the competence to grant or withdraw the environmental standard conformity certificate is held by the following agencies:
- The Environment Department, which grants or withdraws, under the authorization of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, this certificate to/from production, business or service establishments whose environmental impact assessment reports are approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment;
- Provincial/municipal People’s Committees, which grant or withdraw this certificate to/from production, business or service establishments whose environmental impact assessment reports are approved by these local administrations.-