In brief
On 28 November 2024, Supreme Decree No. 013-2024-MINAM was published, which approves the new Single Procedure for the Environmental Certification Process ("New PUPCA"), under the responsibility of the National Environmental Certification Service for Sustainable Investments (SENACE). It will become effective on 1 January 2025.
The purpose of the New PUPCA is to regulate the stages, requirements, deadlines and other procedures of the environmental certification process to be carried out by SENACE.
It should be recalled that SENACE had already been implementing the PUPCA since 2022. However, through Supreme Decree No. 006-2023-MINAM, published on 31 May 2023, it was suspended to define a series of technical aspects of the evaluation process of environmental management instruments. In this sense, this regulation repeals the previous PUPCA approved by Supreme Decree No. 004-2022-MINAM.
Regarding the procedures in process at the time of the entry into force of the New PUPCA, they will be governed by the previous regulations until their completion. This rule also applies to holders that have initiated the preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or its modification, provided that (i) they have executed a citizen participation mechanism, or (ii) they have communicated the initiation of the preparation of the EIA or its modification, before 1 January 2025.
The main provisions of the New PUPCA include the following:
1. Scope of application
It is national in scope and mandatory for the following:
- All public investment projects subject to the National Environmental Impact Assessment System and whose environmental assessment is under the jurisdiction of SENACE
- SENACE and other public entities that participate in the environmental certification process
2. Prior evaluation administrative procedures subject to negative administrative silence
The following procedures fall into this category:
- Approval and modification of the Citizen Participation Plan (PPC)
- Approval and modification of the detailed EIA and semi-detailed EIA
- Approval of the Sustaining Technical Report (ITS)
3. Projects that are not included in the anticipated classification or do not have Common Terms of Reference approved by the corresponding sector
The owner of the project must process the following before SENACE (including procedures subject to negative administrative silence):
- Classification of the investment project
- Approval of the Terms of Reference and their modification
4. Regarding technical opinions in the EIA approval process
- The SENACE and the reviewing entities must only deal with matters within their competence. The observations issued should not replicate or contradict each other.
- Likewise, the SENACE will periodically inform the project owner of the progress of the evaluation and the technical deficiencies noted that must be included in the observation report.
- In the event of delay by any of the binding reviewers, the SENACE, at the request of the project owner, transfers its observations and those of the other reviewers to the project owner for information purposes, who will correct the observations within the time period granted in the observation report. In this way, the EIA approval procedure is optimized.
In general terms, the New PUPCA simplifies and defines more clearly the deadlines and stages of the environmental certification process.
We hope this information is of relevance to you and your company. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any advice in this regard.
Spanish version
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