The Regulation on Environmental Impact Assessment Has Been Published in the Official Gazette
The Regulation (“Regulation”) on Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) entered into force through publication in the Official Gazette dated 29.07.2022 and numbered 31907.
The Regulation abrogated the Regulation on Environmental Impact Assessment that was published in the Official Gazette dated 25.11.2014 and numbered 29186 (“Abrogated Regulation”).
Important rules and concepts introduced by the Regulation prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change (“Ministry”) within the scope of “Green Development Goals” are as follows:
- The Regulation foresees that the authority of the Ministry to issue “EIA Required” and “EIA Not Required” decisions may be transferred to the Provincial Directorates of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change (“provincial directorate”) instead of the governorships. Likewise, many of the duties and authorities of the governorships regarding the EIA processes within the scope of the Abrogated Regulation are established as the duties and authorities of the provincial directorates with the Regulation.
- The stakeholder participation plan shall be prepared in order to inform the public about the EIA processes and to receive their opinions and suggestions.
- In case the investments for the projects with “EIA Positive” decisions are not initiated within 5 years without force majeure, the decision shall be deemed invalid. This period was 7 years in the Abrogated Regulation.
- In addition to the out-of-scope projects, the legally exempt projects shall issue an EIA report subject to the thresholds set out in the annexes of the Regulation for the cases where capacity increases or area expansions are planned.
- Annex-1, which regulates the projects subject to the EIA, and Annex-2, which lists the projects subject to preliminary examination and evaluation are amended, and the number of projects for which an EIA report must be prepared has increased.
- Environmental Monitoring Plan and Zero Waste Plan, Traffic Management Plan, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan, Environmental and Social Management Plan, under the title of Sustainability Plan are added to the EIA General Format.
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