Sejong, August 31- On August 26, the Ministry of Environment (ME, Minister Han Wha-jin) briefed President Yoon about its plans for environmental deregulation at the 1st Regulatory Innovation Strategy Meeting held in the city of Daegu.  

The major contents of environmental deregulation measures are four-fold. First, the Ministry of Environment will change the current positive to the negative regulatory system. Positive regulations define what is legal and prohibit everything else. On the other hand, negative regulations define what is legally prohibited and allow for everything else. Second, conventional uniform regulation will be changed to differentiated regulation. Third, the ministry will change unilateral command-and-control regulation to one with mutual communication and negotiation. Fourth, the ministry will prioritize carbon neutrality and circular economy regulatory reforms.

These transitions are also in line with the trends of the international community. The international community is moving towards achieving carbon neutrality and sustainability. Accordingly, the environment has an increasing impact on national competitiveness. There is a growing trend for developed countries to change their approaches to regulations in more innovation-driving ways.

For that reason, ME will stay firm on the objects and standards of the country's environmental policies. At the same time, the ministry will improve environmental regulations to lead to private-led innovation and increase field applicability.  

Details of the environment ministry's plans for environmental deregulation are as follows. 

1. From a positive to a negative regulatory system: 190 million tons of waste will be recycled more easily annually.

Despite their marginal harm, waste paper, scrap metal, and waste glass were not easy to recycle due to stringent waste management regulations. Many pointed out that overly difficult filing and approval procedures for waste regulatory exemptions extensively impede recycling efforts. Even when efforts are made to upcycle such wastes, the positive regulations only permit certain types of recycling, making it impossible to apply new technologies.

In the future, however, less harmful recyclable items will be recognized as recycled resources and exempted from being subject to waste regulation. The Ministry of Environment will introduce a regulatory sandbox and boost the environmental assessment of recycling. By doing this, the current regulation will be switched to a negative regulatory system to expand recyclable items.

The ministry expects to save the cost of waste management KRW 211.4 billion annually and create a new value of KRW 200 billion worth annually through expanded recycling. 

2. From conventional uniform regulation to differentiated regulation: The Ministry of Environment will be able to regulate chemical substances more effectively using differentiated regulations depending on hazard levels

In 2015, the Korean government enacted the Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Substances and the Chemical Substances Control Act to build a system where information on the hazard of chemicals is verified in advance and managed adequately. However, facilities that exclusively handle low-hazard substances, such as low-concentration lead, had to abide by about 330 regulations, the same number of regulations applied to facilities that handle high-hazard substances, such as high-concentration sulfuric acid. Some concerns about excessive regulations have been raised. It is expected that the number of chemical substances subject to registration will increase, and the companies' burdens will also increase. In this case, regulation for chemical substances may not be appropriately applied, and a safety loophole may happen accordingly.

The Ministry of Environment plans to apply regulations, such as criteria for handling facilities and permission to conduct hazardous chemical business, in a differentiated manner depending on chemical substances' toxicity and harmfulness. The ministry plans to apply new regulations so that handlers would pay more attention when they handle high acute toxic chemicals, which are highly likely to cause chemical accidents and become hazardous when coming in contact with human bodies. On the other hand, chemicals, which have a low risk of a chemical accident but affect the human body when exposed for an extended period, will be managed in a way to reduce exposure to the human body instead of focusing on the risk of accidents.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Environment plans to organize the Chemical Safety Policy Forum. On this pan-national communicative platform, the experts, public, and industry will discuss criteria for chemical registration and ways to diminish blind spots for information on chemical substances. Until now, the system to control chemical substances has been operated focusing on the registration of chemical substances, causing insufficiency of safety management in actual practice. The forum participants will discuss ways to adapt new regulatory systems concerning chemical substances applied in the developed countries such as the European Union to solve the problem.

It is anticipated that such improvements will enable the government to regulate chemical substances more effectively, thus strengthening the safety of citizens.

3. From command-and-control regulation to mutually communicated regulation:  The Ministry of Environment will simplify the processes of Environmental Impact Assessments and improve transparency using science, technology, and data.

Korea's environmental impact assessment system, which was in high demand for improvement, will be upgraded through communication. The current environmental impact assessment was adopted in 1980 and played an important role in ensuring that conservation and development are in harmony and balance. However, many have pointed out that Korea's EIA requires an upgrade in line with the development of science and technology and other changes that have been made over time. 

Under the country's current system, all projects or plans with a certain scale are subject to an environmental impact assessment. It leads to an excessive number of cases to be evaluated and deals with broad items and scope for the evaluation. It has become insufficient and perfunctory due to the costly and time-consuming process. Additionally, the environmental impact assessment is often criticized as a "blind assessment" since residents and project implementers do not know the progress of the EIA due to a lack of communication. 

In response, ME will progressively introduce the screening required for an environmental impact assessment to determine whether it is likely to have a significant effect on the environment and therefore requires an assessment. Project implementers and the Environmental Impact Assessment Council will set the scope and items for the evaluation, utilizing accumulated data for over a decade so that project implementers can focus on essential evaluation. The Ministry of Environment will improve the transparency and reliability of the assessment by sharing the assessments' progress with residents and project implementers through a mobile application. 

Such a regulatory improvement is expected that the environmental authorities would selectively focus on the projects that might significantly affect the environment and the necessary items and scopes for an environmental impact assessment. It is also anticipated that the authorities conducting an environmental impact assessment will curtail the period and cost taken for duplicated assessments. 

The ministry will resolve the problems identified during the communication with the concerned stakeholders by integrating similar and repetitive regulations and updating impracticably ambiguous ones. For instance, redundancy in regulations on wastes containing harmful chemicals prescribed in the Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Substances and the Chemical Substances Control Act will be revised and unified as the Chemical Substances Control Act.

The ministry plans to establish detailed provisions through social consultation, such as forums with experts and stakeholder meetings. 

4. Regulations steering towards a transition to green society: The Ministry of Environment will prioritize deregulation concerning carbon neutrality and circular economy.

The Ministry of Environment will prioritize deregulation directly concerning environmental policy objectives, such as carbon neutrality and circular economy, and provide the necessary support to lead a transition to a green economy. 

① Achieving carbon neutrality:  The Ministry of Environment will update the emissions trading scheme and further utilize CCUS

The Ministry of Environment will improve the emissions trading scheme to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The ministry will improve conditions to allocate additional emission permits, which is unfavorable to the new or merged companies. The ministry will simplify the process of using international credits to recognize GHG reduction outcomes.  

The government will deregulate the industry to utilize further Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). For instance, captured carbon is no longer categorized as waste, and new regulations will be established to recycle captured carbon. 

② Achieving circular economy: The Ministry of Environment will expand the use of pyrolysis oil and biogas and recycle spent EV batteries.

The Ministry of Environment will update the relevant regulations to produce pyrolysis oil from plastic waste and use it to make naphtha, the main raw material of most plastics. 

The government will increase the use of biomass by streamlining the regulation related to the direct supply of biomass. The ministry will recognize spent EV batteries as recycled resources. 

③ Fostering more green technology companies:  The Ministry of Environment will lift the burdens of acquiring environmental certifications and support SMEs to comply with environmental regulations. 

The Ministry of Environment will improve the certification of Eco-label so that products with mere different colors and designs can obtain certification of eco-label as a single product. The ministry will establish an integrated management system for environmental safety for small and medium businesses to check and comply with sectoral environmental regulations. 

The ministry will link the suppliers and buyers of green technology and environmentally friendly products. The ministry will also support localizing the technology to produce ultrapure water for making semiconductors. 

The ministry will link the suppliers and buyers of green technology and environmentally friendly products. The ministry will also support localizing the technology to produce ultrapure water for making semiconductors. 

Environment Minister Han Wha-jin said, "the previous environmental deregulation did not consider the people's expectation for environmental improvement. The previous environmental deregulation faced backlash since it focused more on environmental deregulation in a way the companies wanted. The Ministry of Environment will proceed with environmental regulatory reform in a way that people and companies all desire to ensure a safer and better environment for all."

Contact: Na Wook-jong, Deputy Director

Policy Planning Bureau / +82-(0)44-201-7582

Foreign Media Contact: Chun Minjo(Rachel)

+82-(0)44-201-6055 / rachelmchun@korea.kr