Automatic Calculation of Environmental Impact Assessment Agency Fees Expanded to Cover Strategic and Small-Scale Assessments

The government will expand the scope of its system for automatically calculating environmental impact assessment agency fees to cover all areas of environmental impact assessment.

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced on the 21st that, starting from the 22nd, it will fully implement the ‘Automatic Calculation System for Environmental Impact Assessment Agency Fees,’ which enables project owners subject to environmental impact assessment to easily determine appropriate fees when outsourcing assessments to specialized agencies.

The automatic calculation system generates the agency project fee automatically by applying the standard unit labor requirements and wage rates, based on basic information such as the type of assessment, project size, and site characteristics.

Building sign of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment inside the Government Sejong Complex. Photo by Yonhap News.

The government first introduced the system for environmental impact assessment in November 2024. With this expansion, the coverage has been broadened to include strategic environmental impact assessments, small-scale environmental impact assessments, and post-environmental impact survey agency projects. As a result, agency fees for all environmental impact assessment projects can now be calculated automatically.

Until now, project owners had to manually calculate the number of personnel and wage rates according to standard unit requirements, or refer to similar projects and agency estimates to determine project costs. This process was time- and labor-intensive and often led to calculation errors or underestimation, which could result in a decline in assessment quality.

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment expects that by using the automatic calculation system, even project owners without specialized knowledge can quickly verify appropriate project costs. Securing proper fees will allow sufficient investment of personnel and time for field investigations and analyses, which is expected to enhance the reliability and quality of environmental impact assessments. The system has been built by connecting the Environmental Impact Assessment Support System (EIASS) with the Engineering Fee Calculation Service, and is available for use by the general public.

Lee Chaeun, Director General of Nature Conservation Policy at the Ministry, stated, "With this comprehensive expansion and overhaul, it is now possible to easily calculate appropriate fees across all areas of environmental impact assessment. We will establish a structure in which fair compensation leads to properly conducted environmental impact assessments, thereby improving quality and reliability."

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