National strategy for sustainable socio-economic development for the period until 2020 - Belarus

The strategy has goals on transitioning to cleaner production; reducing emissions of pollutants from stationary and mobile sources; water recycling and consistent re-use; reducing the rate of waste generation; innovation and entrepreneurship and others The country has assigned “Anthropogenic environmental load” (i.e. amount of fuel and energy resources (in tonnes of fuel equivalent) per square kilometre) as one of the indicators for monitoring and assessing policy success (alongside GDP per capita and HDI) – and which are regularly published by the National Statistical Committee. Belarus has also integrated environmental impact assessment into the national regulatory system, and this approach is used in decision-making on a regular basis. The Ministry of Industry developed and approved a “Long-term plan for the Ministry of Industry to implement the policy to preserve and improve the environment and reduce the negative impact by 2025”. Finally, in 2012, regulations were adopted to establish new (non-tax) mechanisms to support the implementation of the principle of extended producer responsibility for waste from the disposal of consumer goods (complex household appliances, waste oil, etc.). Under this principle, the costs of waste collection and disposal should be covered by the manufacturers of these goods. Underway