This Model Law establishes a comprehensive legal framework for environmental funds. It defines key concepts such as environmental harm, ecological payments, and environmental funds, and sets out fundamental principles including prevention, the “polluter pays” principle, and extended producer responsibility. The Law aims to regulate the formation, management, and use of environmental funds, with the broader objective of financing environmental protection measures, improving environmental quality, and ensuring ecological and hydrometeorological safety. The Law creates a system of state environmental funds, including a central fund with regional branches, and permits the establishment of public environmental funds. It outlines the institutional structure, functions, and governance of the state environmental fund, including its role in mobilizing financial resources, funding environmental programs and projects, supporting research, and promoting international cooperation. The fund operates as a legally independent entity under state oversight, with strict requirements for targeted use of resources and accountability mechanisms through supervisory and auditing bodies. The document also details the sources of funding—such as environmental taxes, fees, fines, compensation payments, and voluntary contributions—and specifies priority and additional areas of expenditure, including pollution mitigation, environmental restoration, waste management, climate adaptation, and development of clean technologies. It establishes procedures for allocating funds, emphasizing competitive selection and contractual arrangements, and defines governance bodies such as the council, executive board, and audit commission. Finally, it regulates reporting, financial control, and the procedures for reorganization or liquidation of the fund, ensuring transparency and alignment with national environmental legislation.
2023-04-14