Vietnam’s Draft Environmental Protection Law: Key Proposed Amendments

On September 17, 2026, the second draft of the Law Amending and Supplementing Several Articles of the Law on Environmental Protection (Draft 2) was released. This version may be considered the final draft before submission to the Government.

Compared with Vietnam’s 2020 Law on Environmental Protection, the draft proposes several significant changes, focusing on simplifying environmental procedures, revising Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements, and introducing additional provisions on climate change response, greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, and the carbon market.

Definition of Environmental Consulting Services

The draft law introduces a definition of “environmental consulting services”, referring to a business sector that provides services for conducting Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and preparing reports proposing the issuance of environmental permits.

Changes to prohibited activities involving controlled substances

Compared with the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection, the draft narrows the scope of prohibited activities. The existing provisions cover production, import, temporary import, re-export, and consumption, whereas the draft focuses on production and import.

However, the scope of regulated substances and related products subject to the prohibition is expanded. It includes not only ozone-depleting substances (ODS) but also:

• Controlled substances, including ODS and certain greenhouse gases.
• Equipment and products containing or manufactured using these substances, as specified in lists issued by the Government.

The draft also introduces an additional prohibited activity: releasing controlled substances contained in equipment or products into the environment when they are no longer in use, without collecting, recycling, reusing, or treating them in accordance with applicable regulations.

Simplification of environmental impact assessment and environmental permit procedures

The draft proposes revising the classification of investment projects by streamlining and simplifying environmental criteria.

Under the proposal, investment projects would be classified into three groups to determine the applicable Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirements and procedures. Group IV, which covers projects posing no risk of adverse environmental impacts, would be eliminated.

The procedures for conducting EIAs and obtaining environmental permits would also be simplified.

Changes to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Requirements

The draft proposes changes to the methods for fulfilling obligations relating to product and packaging recycling and waste treatment. 

Compared with the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection, the draft no longer refers to the option of making financial contributions to the Vietnam Environmental Protection Fund to support product and packaging recycling as a means of fulfilling recycling obligations.

Instead, organizations and individuals may fulfill their recycling obligations through recycling arrangements, as provided under the existing framework. If the mandatory recycling rate is not met, the outstanding obligation would be carried forward to subsequent years, subject to the timelines and rates to be prescribed by the Government.

The draft also proposes exempting products and packaging subject to environmental protection tax from waste treatment support fees.

Additional provisions on Climate Change response and the carbon market

The draft introduces and clarifies several provisions concerning climate change response, greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, and the carbon market. Consulting, assessment, GHG inventory, GHG emission reduction, and other related services would be added to the list of environmental services.

The list of facilities required to conduct GHG inventories is proposed to be issued annually, instead of once every two years under the current regulations. Facilities included in the list would be required to prepare annual GHG emission reports.

Several provisions previously addressed in existing decrees have also been incorporated into the draft law. These include provisions concerning the allocation and surrender of emission allowances, as well as carbon market transactions under Decree No. 06/2022/ND-CP, as amended and supplemented by Decree No. 119/2026/ND-CP, and Decree No. 29/2026/ND-CP on the Domestic Carbon Exchange.

The draft law is expected to clarify and simplify various environmental procedures while establishing more specific provisions on climate change response and the carbon market. It would also provide a higher-level legal basis for obligations relating to GHG emission reductions. For further details, please refer to the full draft law published on the National Assembly’s draft legislation portal.