Guide 3 of 5 · NSW
NSW environment protection licences: what the licence carries
In NSW, the Environment Protection Authority issues environment protection licences for industrial premises under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, known as the POEO Act. The EPA’s Guide to licensing helps a business work out whether it needs one, and also covers how and where to apply, how licence fees are calculated, and what a business may need to do even without one.
General information about NSW law only, not legal advice. This guide rests on the NSW EPA’s licensing pages, put into plain words, and NSW Planning’s page on development approval. The NSW EPA is the official place to check.
What every licence holder takes on
A licence may include conditions on pollution prevention and control, on monitoring, and on reporting. Beyond its own conditions, the NSW EPA sets out duties that come with holding any licence. Paraphrased, they are:
Every licence holder must
- keep to the conditions of the licence;
- prepare plans for responding to pollution incidents;
- pay the yearly administrative fees, and sometimes extra fees;
- notify pollution incidents that cause or threaten material harm to the environment, immediately.
Most licence holders must also
- publish pollution monitoring data, or make it available, or both;
- report non-compliances in real time.
From the NSW EPA, Environment protection licences (updated 28 April 2026)
The NSW EPA’s reporting page adds that a premises holding an environment protection licence is required to have a complaints line, and the EPA suggests that someone who sees pollution from a site, where it is not an emergency and it is safe to do so, contacts the site first.
The incident plans exist for that fourth duty. The EPA says the plans must hold the incident and emergency contact details used to notify, and that licensees have to test them and keep the contacts current. How notification works is set out in reporting a pollution incident.
Applying, and changing a licence later
Applications can be made online through eConnect EPA. The EPA also has forms to apply for a licence, to vary, transfer or surrender one, and to apply for a load reduction agreement.
The premises named on a licence matters more than it might seem. The EPA explains that the licensed premises information defines where scheduled activities are authorised to be carried out, and the area and activities the licensee manages or controls. It is running a program to update that information for every licence in NSW, so a licensee may receive a letter asking for an accurate, mappable boundary.
Where a licence meets a development application
When a development needing planning consent also needs a licence, the two processes meet, and NSW Planning explains how. Where a development also needs a pollution licence, it is “integrated development”: NSW Planning’s page lists a pollution licence among the permits that make it so.
| Step | What NSW Planning says happens |
|---|---|
| Referral | The consent authority must refer the application to the approval body, such as the NSW EPA, and incorporate its general terms of approval. |
| A refusal | If the approval body recommends refusal, the consent authority must not approve the application. |
| Silence | If the advice has not arrived 21 days after the body receives the application or requested information, the consent authority can decide the application. |
| Public notice | Integrated development needing a POEO Act pollution licence is advertised development, with a 28-day notification period. |
The rest of the planning side is in environmental assessment in a development application.
Fees tied to pollution, and climate rules from 2027
Some licence holders are under load-based licensing, which sets limits on the pollutant loads certain industries emit by linking licence fees to emissions. They report through an annual return. The same scheme underpins emissions trading, letting licensees buy and sell credits for reducing emissions.
The EPA is also phasing in new climate change requirements from 2027 for licensed facilities emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, typically large industrial facilities such as coal mines, manufacturing, large intensive agriculture and large landfills.
How the EPA watches licensed premises
The EPA tracks changes in risk through indicators such as non-compliances, inspection results, incidents and community reports, changes in operations, and monitoring data. Its authorised officers can inspect premises, give guidance on how to comply, collect evidence including samples and photos, and enforce the law. It also runs an ongoing compliance audit program, and keeps a public register with information on licence reviews and prosecutions.
Where the EPA is not the regulator
The EPA issues the licence, but not all pollution is the EPA’s to regulate. Its reporting page says the local council or another organisation may be responsible for some pollution, and is then the right agency to report it to. The same page sends licence holders who must report an incident to the EPA, and everyone else to their local council.
For figures beyond one site, the EPA points to the National Pollutant Inventory, which publishes data on certain emissions across Australia, by type and amount, and on what they do to health and the environment.