Environmental Management (Environmental Performance Bond) Regulations, 2024.

These Regulations, consisting of 36 articles and 1 Schedule, aim to provide for and promote environmental sustainability by ensuring (i) security of good environmental practices; and (ii) compliance with safe decommissioning of a project, site rehabilitation, and ecosystem restoration during and after the closure of a project. The Minister responsible for matters relating to the environment has the powers to (i) determine a form of environmental performance bond to be deposited; (ii) issue an environmental performance bond certificate. The Director of Environment is responsible for coordinating, promoting, and managing environmental performance bonds, including advising on their form, receiving approved plans, and handling their deposit, discharge, or confiscation. Part IV details the process for establishing and managing environmental performance bonds. Developers must prepare a decommissioning plan (the details of which are specified in Article 22), which the Council reviews and approves. The Director of Environment then determines the bond amount, which the developer must deposit. The bond may be reassessed if conditions change, and can be confiscated by the Council if a developer fails to comply with the Regulations. Under Article 19 is established a Project Decommissioning Committee, responsible for (i) site verification, inspection, monitoring and assessment of compliance to environmental standards; (ii) review of a detailed decommissioning plan; (iii) reassessment of an environmental performance bond deposited; (iv) advising the Council on matters related to the decommissioning of a project; (v) advising the Council on administration and management of an environmental performance bond.
General Provisions cover, among other topics (i) post-closure monitoring; (ii) developer's liability for environmental impacts; (iii) transitional period for compliance; (iv) validity of environmental performance bonds; (v) duty to keep records; (vi) exemptions for government projects; (vii) penalties for offenses. Additionally, Schedule 1 lists the projects that require an environmental performance bond, and Schedule 2 outlines the detailed decommissioning plan.