“Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP Amending and Supplementing Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP Detailing a Number of Articles of Law on Environmental Protection” was issued by the Vietnamese government on January 5, 2025, and it became operative that same day (referred to as “the new Decree”). The most significant of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020’s subordinate rules is Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP, which was issued and went into effect on January 10, 2022. After several public opinions were requested from ministries and industry, the Decree’s amendments—which had been discussed and considered since 2023—were ultimately approved. The primary changes made this time are: changes to the application destination for various environmental permits and licenses; clarification of the requirement to renew and reissue environmental licenses; exemption from environmental registration; import of scrap metal as raw materials for production; revision of the list of products containing POPs; and reduction of the scope of various environmental permits and licenses, including approval of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and environmental licenses, among others. changes to the import/export preferential tax structure and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program’s scope.

The following sections describe the main revisions, excluding those related to POPs and EPR regulations.

Reduction of the scope of various environmental permits and licenses

The new Decree explains and updates a number of clauses in Annex II, “List of Forms of Manufacturing, Trading, and Services that may Cause Environmental Pollution,” which covers a total of 17 industries. These clauses are crucial for figuring out the extent of environmental permits and EIAs required by Decree 08/2022/ND-CP.

For instance, the new Decree establishes a threshold for “small-scale” production of “No. 17 Manufacture of Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Components,” one of the list’s amended items: less than 100,000 units of electronic equipment or less than 100 tons of electrical equipment annually. The previous Decree, on the other hand, only stated that “an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) must be approved before beginning any electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing project, or an application and acquisition of an environmental license is required depending on the production volume.”

Furthermore, the new Decree streamlines the criteria for determining regulatory targets. Previously, the criteria relied on both the quantity and weight of products produced; now, only one criterion is needed to decide if a facility is subject to the regulation. For instance, the weight of electrical devices is taken into account, and the quantity of products is taken into account for electronic gadgets. Additionally, the threshold values have been lowered to five times their prior levels. Moreover, only plating, chemical or paint painting, and chemical cleaning are now included in the targeted manufacturing processes.

Furthermore, as stated in Annex II of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, manufacturing projects that are classified as “large-scale” production (Group I as defined in Annex III) or “medium-scale” production (Group II as defined in Annex IV) must undergo mandatory EIA implementation. Along with Groups I and II, manufacturing projects that produce waste that needs to be treated and are classified as “small-scale” production (Group III in Annex V) must obtain an environmental license. Please consult Annexes II through V of the aforementioned Decree for further information.

Change of application destination for environmental permits and licenses

One of the most significant changes to the new Decree is that, with the exception of projects involving two or more provinces (or regions), the local People’s Committees now have the power to review applications for environmental licenses and EIAs. By preventing reviews from being concentrated at the level of the central government, namely the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), this decentralization of review authority aims to speed up the review process.

Clarification of the obligation to renew and reissue environmental licenses

The new Decree clarifies the requirements for renewal or reissuance of environmental licenses for business investment projects with environmental licenses due to changes in their facilities, as follows

Renewal of environmental license

Business operators must renew their environmental licenses if any changes are made to what is permitted in the environmental license due to factory expansion, increase in production volume, change in production technology, etc.
However, this does not apply to the issuance of an environmental license.

Reissuance of environmental license

Business operators must apply for reissuance of environmental licenses if the environmental impact of the project is likely to increase due to expansion of the plant, increase in production volume, or change in production technology.
*Except in cases where the investment project has been reclassified or is subject to an EIA.

In addition, any changes that may increase environmental impacts, as stipulated in Article 44, Section 3b of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, are also subject to environmental license reissuance. For manufacturing facilities, the notable changes that require mandatory license issuance are as follows:

• Increase in the amounts of emissions of wastewater, dust or exhaust gases by more than 10%, increasing the emissions of pollutants into the environment.
• Change in the treatment technologies for wastewater, dust, and exhaust gases (unless additional equipment or treatment processes are required for the treatment).
• Change in the destination of treated wastewater to a destination where more stringent standards are applied.
• Not having installed environmental incident prevention equipment for wastewater treatment systems or reducing the scale of such systems.
• Introduction of additional recycling, processing, and co-processing methods for waste using existing technology, environmental protection engineering works, and manufacturing facilities.
• Increase in the variety or quantity of scrap imported as production raw materials.

A clause requiring the reissue or renewal of the environmental license based on the percentage increase in the facility’s production volume was part of an earlier draft amendment to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, which was published on October 20, 2023. However, the new Decree did not adopt this revision. Meanwhile, if a manufacturing facility’s production volume increases by 30% or more, the new Decree requires that an EIA be re-conducted.

Expansion of environmental registration exemptions

Facilities that produce trash but are not covered by an environmental license are considered to be subject to a “environmental registration” under the Law on Environmental Protection 2020. Article 32 and Annex XVI of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP already specify the facilities that are exempt from this environmental registration; the new Decree adds the following facilities to this list:

• Facilities regularly generating less than 20 kg/month or 240 kg/year of hazardous waste
• Facilities regularly generating less than 100 kg/month or 1,200 kg/year of general industrial solid waste
• Facilities regularly generating less than 300 kg/day of domestic solid waste
• Facilities treating 5 m3/day of wastewater and emitting less than 50 m3/hour of exhaust gas.

Restrictions on imports of scrap for production raw materials

Businesses who directly import scrap as production raw materials are only permitted to import scrap equal to 80% of their required material quantity on and after the Decree’s effective date (January 5, 2025) under the new Decree. The remainder needs to be bought domestically in Vietnam.

In accordance with the Prime Minister’s Decision 13/2023/QD-TTg, the Vietnamese government has also updated the list of scrap that can be imported as production raw materials. Additionally, it has stated that it would no longer allow the importation of scrap that can be supplied domestically.

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