Ms. Dang Nguyet Anh (Hanoi) asked, according to the provisions of Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP amending a number of articles of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP, which environmental procedures does the above project have to carry out and which agency has the authority?

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment responds to this issue as follows:

The information you provided is unclear because it has not been clarified whether the project or facility is a type of production, business or service that poses a risk of causing environmental pollution, so the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has no basis to respond.

We request that you carefully study the provisions in Clause 5, Article 74 of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP dated January 10, 2022 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection (amended at Point d, Clause 31, Article 1 of Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP dated January 6, 2025 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP):

"5. For investment projects, establishments belonging to groups I, II, III specified in Appendices III, IV and V issued together with this Decree must prepare a dossier to request an environmental license in accordance with the provisions of Article 39 of the Law on Environmental Protection when falling into one of the following cases:

a) Only domestic wastewater discharged into the environment must be treated with a total flow of 20 m3/day or more;

b) There is industrial wastewater discharged into the environment that must be treated for establishments and projects of the type that pose a risk of causing environmental pollution specified in Appendix II of this Decree. Particularly, the type of livestock farming, livestock and poultry slaughtering must comply with the provisions of Point c of this Clause;

c) There is industrial wastewater discharged into the environment that must be treated with a total flow of 10 m3/day or more;

d) There is emissions discharged into the environment that must be treated with a total flow of 1,000 m3/day or more; m3/hour or more when officially put into operation".

Regarding the authority to grant environmental licenses, we suggest that you study the provisions in Article 41 of the Law on Environmental Protection:

"Article 41. Authority to grant environmental licenses

1. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment grants environmental licenses to the following entities, except for the cases specified in Clause 2 of this Article:

a) The entities specified in Article 39 of this Law have had their environmental impact assessment report appraisal results approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment;

b) The entities specified in Article 39 of this Law are located in the area of 02 or more provincial-level administrative units or are located in sea areas where the administrative management responsibilities of the provincial People's Committee have not been determined; establishments that import scrap from abroad as raw materials for production, establishments that provide hazardous waste treatment services.

2. The Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security grant environmental licenses to investment projects and establishments that are state secrets regarding national defense and security.

3. Provincial People's Committees Issue environmental licenses to the following subjects, except for the cases specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article:

a) Group II investment projects specified in Article 39 of this Law;

b) Group III investment projects specified in Article 39 of this Law located in 02 or more district-level administrative units;

c) Subjects specified in Clause 2, Article 39 of this Law whose environmental impact assessment report appraisal results have been approved by the provincial People's Committee or a Ministry or ministerial-level agency.

4. The district-level People's Committee issues environmental licenses to subjects specified in Article 39 of this Law, except for the cases specified in Clauses 1, 2 and 3 of this Article".