​A new leaf: On Environment Audit Rules 2025

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has brought into effect a set of rules called the Environment Audit Rules, 2025, that allows the vital activity of environmental monitoring and auditing to go beyond the remit of State Pollution Control Boards. The rules will largely scrutinise whether industrial units are compliant with environmental regulation. The overall framework for monitoring and compliance within the existing environmental framework is presently supported by the Central Pollution Control Board, the Regional Offices of the Environment Ministry, and the State Pollution Control Boards/Pollution Control Committees. They have, however, been facing significant constraints in terms of manpower, resources, capacity and infrastructure. “These limitations have hampered their ability to comprehensively monitor and enforce environmental compliance across the vast number of projects and industries operating nationwide,” said a press statement by the Environment Ministry. This scheme aims to bridge the manpower and infrastructure deficits faced by regulatory authorities, thereby strengthening the effective implementation of environmental compliance mechanisms.

Under the new rules, private agencies can get themselves accredited as auditors. Much like chartered accountants, environment auditors can get themselves licensed and be authorised to evaluate the compliance of projects with environmental laws and their adherence with best practices in the prevention, control and abatement of pollution. Environmental regulation has, in recent years, transcended policing and bookkeeping. Given that human-caused climate change is seen as a problem that nations must collectively fix, new dimensions to environmental regulations have emerged. Thus, audits undertaken by these agencies can also be used for compliance with ‘Green Credit Rules’, under which individuals and organisations can gain tradeable ‘credits’ for afforestation, sustainable water management and waste management among other activities. Beyond industrial units, nearly every company in India will have to account for its direct and indirect carbon emissions. This will entail fairly complex accounting practices, which are beyond what Pollution Control Board officials can handle. However, preparing for the future should not be at the expense of compromising core responsibilities. It is usually at the district, block and panchayat levels that the most flagrant environmental travesties abound, which escape notice usually because of the lack of trained staff. The new regime must seek to empower them too.

Published – September 06, 2025 12:10 am IST

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