In April 2025, the “Draft Ecological and Environmental Law Code of the People’s Republic of China” was submitted to the 15th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress for its first review. A law code represents the highest form of national legislation, and this code is the second law to be named as a “code” since the founding of New China, following the “Civil Code,” representing a landmark legislative achievement of milestone significance in China’s legislative history. Through systematic integration, compilation and revision, and comprehensive enhancement of existing ecological and environmental legal institutional norms, it forms an ecological and environmental law code with Chinese characteristics that embodies the spirit of the times, reflects the people’s will, and maintains systematic, normative coordination.
1. Background of the Ecological and Environmental Law Code Compilation
In recent years, China’s environmental legal system has been continuously improved, covering ecological and environmental elements such as mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, as well as legal systems for specific river basins and regions, including more than 30 laws, more than 100 administrative regulations, and more than 1,000 local regulations.
Due to objective factors such as long legislative cycles, extended time spans, and multiple amendments, the current ecological and environmental legal system faces issues where ecological and environmental-related legislation belongs to different legal departments, failing to meet the basic requirements for coordinated governance of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, easily causing contradictions and conflicts regarding the same ecological and environmental elements due to differences in legislative concepts and institutional orientations of different legal departments; adopting a “linear” systematization approach combining national laws with administrative regulations, departmental rules, and local legislation, lacking legislative systemic and coordination, leading to problems such as damage to public interests due to power competition or power vacuums.
In 2023, the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese-Style Modernization, approved by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, deployed the major political and legislative task of “compiling an ecological and environmental law code.” Using codified legislation is the optimal choice for enhancing the integrity, systemic, and synergy of ecological and environmental legislation, promoting the modernization of the ecological and environmental legal system. The Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress has included the compilation of the ecological and environmental law code in its legislative plan and 2024 annual legislative schedule, officially launching the legislative process for compiling the ecological and environmental law code. At the current stage, the code is still in the continuous review and revision process. The 17th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress, to be held in Beijing in September 2025, will review the draft general provisions of the ecological and environmental law code, the draft ecological protection section of the ecological and environmental law code, and the draft green and low-carbon development section of the ecological and environmental law code.
2. Overview of the Ecological and Environmental Law Code (Draft)
2.1 Legal Status of the Ecological and Environmental Law Code
As comprehensive legislation governing environmental legal norms, the ecological and environmental law code ranks second only to the Constitution in terms of legal hierarchy, and the norms it establishes have precedence over other individual environmental laws. The ecological and environmental law code is divided into general provisions and specific provisions, with the basic principles and comprehensive systems of the general provisions section governing each specific section, clarifying the logic and interrelationships of the institutional structure within the code, and resolving application conflicts by avoiding contradictions in sources of authority. The ecological and environmental law code comprehensively employs multiple legislative techniques such as “compilation, ordering, compilation, and revision,” effectively addressing the poor coordination and application “blockages” caused by multiple sources of law in the past, and establishing guiding rules that allow for the application of relevant laws when “the code has no explicit provisions,” facilitating the connection mechanism between the “code” and laws in the environmental legal system.
2.2 Content Overview of the Ecological and Environmental Law Code
The draft extracts and summarizes universal institutional norms in the ecological and environmental field, with the general provisions section as the governing framework, stipulating important legal principles and fundamental, comprehensive, and universal legal systems in the ecological and environmental field, such as planning, standards, impact assessment, and emergency response in the ecological and environmental field. The draft summarizes and extracts common pollution prevention and control systems from existing laws into general principles and general provisions, and elevates proven effective mature experiences to legal institutional provisos.
The draft is divided into five parts, in order: General Provisions, Pollution Prevention and Control, Ecological Protection, Green and Low-Carbon Development, and Legal Responsibility and Supplementary Provisions, totaling 1,188 articles.
2.2.1 General Provisions
The general provisions section of the draft stipulates important legal principles and fundamental, comprehensive, and universal legal systems in the ecological and environmental field, governing all other sections. The general provisions section of the draft is divided into 9 chapters with 143 articles.
Table 1 Content Overview of the General Provisions Section of the “Ecological and Environmental Law Code (Draft)”
| Chapter Name | Main Content |
|---|---|
|
Chapter 1: Basic Provisions |
Clarifies the legislative purpose of the ecological and environmental law code, stipulates the definition of ecological environment, scope of application of the code, Party leadership, basic principles of ecological and environmental protection, responsibilities and obligations of all parties, international cooperation, and other content. Additionally, makes special provisions for National Ecology Day. |
| Chapter 2: Supervision
and Management |
Stipulates the supervision and management system and working mechanisms as well as supervision and management systems. |
| Chapter 3: Planning and Ecological and Environmental Zoning Control | Mainly stipulates the planning system in the ecological and environmental field, the ecological protection red line management system, and the ecological and environmental zoning control system. |
| Chapter 4: Standards and Monitoring | Mainly stipulates the standard system in the ecological and environmental field, ecological and environmental benchmarks, and the ecological and environmental monitoring system. |
| Chapter 5: Ecological and Environmental Impact Assessment | Includes general provisions, ecological and environmental impact assessment of plans, and ecological and environmental impact assessment of construction projects. |
| Chapter 6: Ecological
Protection Compensation |
Stipulates the institutional mechanisms for ecological protection compensation. |
| Chapter 7: Emergency Response to Ecological and Environmental
Incidents |
Stipulates the overall requirements for emergency response to sudden ecological and environmental incidents, responsibilities of relevant departments, responsibilities of enterprises and institutions, monitoring and warning, notification and emergency coordination. |
| Chapter 8: Guarantee
Measures |
Mainly stipulates guarantee measures related to ecological and environmental protection in terms of fiscal taxation, pricing, procurement, finance, and industry. |
| Chapter 9: Information Disclosure and Public Participation | Mainly stipulates government ecological and environmental information disclosure, enterprise and institution and other production and business operator ecological and environmental information disclosure systems, as well as guaranteeing public participation and encouraging public supervision. |
2.2.2 Pollution Prevention and Control Section
The Pollution Prevention and Control section systematically integrates, compiles, revises, and optimizes provisions related to pollution prevention and control from existing laws such as the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law, Solid Waste Environmental Pollution Prevention and Control Law, Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law, Radioactive Pollution Prevention and Control Law, Environmental Protection Law, and Marine Environmental Protection Law.
The Pollution Prevention and Control section draft is divided into 9 sub-sections with 525 articles. With “precise, scientific, and law-based pollution control” as the core, it constructs a pollution prevention and control system. The general principles establish the core pollutant discharge permit system, clarifying that pollution discharge must meet standards and be subject to total volume control, strictly controlling behaviors that evade supervision, and implementing tiered management of market entities.
Key control focuses on atmosphere, water, marine, soil, and other areas: atmospheric pollution prevention and control optimizes industrial energy structure, promotes multi-field governance and regional joint prevention and control, and establishes emergency mechanisms for heavily polluted weather; water pollution prevention and control prioritizes water source protection, implements watershed-based control, and regulates industrial, agricultural, and vessel discharge; marine pollution clarifies multi-departmental coordination, strictly controls land-based pollution and marine engineering and vessel discharge; soil pollution centers on risk control, implementing classified protection of agricultural land and construction land.
It also regulates pollution prevention and control for solid waste, noise, radioactivity, and chemical substances. Solid waste follows “reduction, resource utilization, and harmlessness,” noise implements field-specific control, and radioactivity and chemical substances strengthen risk warning and source control, comprehensively reinforcing pollution prevention and control bottom lines.
2.2.3 Ecological Protection Section
The Ecological Protection section draft is divided into 7 chapters with 265 articles, transforming the previous legislative approach that targeted single ecological elements as protection objectives, emphasizing systematic protection concepts. With coordinated systematic governance of ecological elements as the core, it promotes ecological protection and restoration.
It clarifies optimizing ecological spatial layout, building natural protected area systems, strengthening biodiversity protection and invasive species prevention and control, and improving monitoring mechanisms. It focuses on protecting forest, grassland, wetland, and other ecosystems through classified control, such as comprehensive protection of natural forests, grassland-livestock balance, and tiered wetland control; regulates the utilization of natural resources such as land, minerals, and water resources, strictly maintaining the red line for cultivated land and permanent basic farmland protection. It strengthens species protection through tiered management of wild flora and fauna, strictly controlling hunting and collection; emphasizes protection of natural protected areas, the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and other important geographical units, and compiles special plans. It also prevents and controls soil erosion and desertification, establishes comprehensive ecological restoration mechanisms, organizes major restoration projects, encourages social capital participation, and reinforces ecological security barriers.
2.2.4 Green and Low-Carbon Development Section
The code compilation addresses legal governance needs in green and low-carbon development, climate change response, and carbon peak and carbon neutrality, filling legal gaps and making principled and guiding provisions. The Green and Low-Carbon Development section focuses on important links and areas of green and low-carbon development closely related to ecological and environmental protection, establishing and improving related legal systems for green and low-carbon development.
The Green and Low-Carbon Development section draft is divided into 4 chapters with 113 articles.
Table 2 Content Overview of the Green and Low-Carbon Development Section of the “Ecological and Environmental Law Code (Draft)”
| Chapter Name | Main Content |
|---|---|
| Chapter 1: General Provisions | Clarifies that the scope of application includes circular economy, energy transformation, climate change response, and other fields, establishing overall requirements for promoting green economic and social transformation and constructing low-carbon circular systems. Strengthens regional green orientation, promotes green transformation in industry, transportation, and other fields, establishes green and low-carbon product standard certification systems, clarifies implementation obligations of governments, enterprises, and citizens, and improves fiscal and financial support and international cooperation mechanisms. |
| Chapter 2: Developing Circular Economy | Divided into four sections: general provisions, cleaner production, waste utilization, and green consumption. Cleaner production reduces consumption and pollution from the source, compiles and implements plans and publishes technology catalogs, regulates mandatory and voluntary audits; waste circular utilization promotes system construction, implements extended producer responsibility systems, regulates waste utilization in multiple fields; green consumption restricts single-use items, promotes green packaging, establishes government green procurement systems, and guides social green consumption. |
| Chapter 3: Energy Conservation and Green Low-Carbon Transformation | Contains three sections: general provisions, energy conservation, and energy transformation. General provisions optimize energy structure and promote green low- carbon technological innovation; energy conservation improves standard review systems, strengthens management of key energy-using units, and implements energy efficiency labeling systems; energy transformation prioritizes renewable energy development, improves consumption guarantee mechanisms, constructs new power systems, and orderly promotes hydrogen energy utilization. |
| Chapter 4: Climate Change Response | Divided into four sections: general provisions, mitigation and dual carbon, climate adaptation, and international cooperation. General provisions integrate dual carbon into planning and establish coordination and monitoring mechanisms; mitigation and dual carbon implement carbon emission total volume and intensity control, improve statistical accounting and carbon market mechanisms, and enhance ecological carbon sink capacity; climate adaptation formulates strategic plans and strengthens regional and sectoral adaptation capacity; international cooperation follows the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, participates in global governance, and conducts technological cooperation. |
2.2.5 Legal Responsibility and Supplementary Provisions Section
The Legal Responsibility and Supplementary Provisions section, focusing on prohibitive and obligatory provisions in the General Provisions, Pollution Prevention and Control, Ecological Protection, and Green and Low-Carbon Development sections of the ecological and environmental law code, and combining new situations and problems faced in ecological and environmental law enforcement and justice,transfers, selects, merges, and refines existing legal responsibility provisions to comprehensively, strictly, and reasonably establish legal responsibilities.
The Legal Responsibility and Supplementary Provisions section draft is divided into 3 chapters with 142 articles, including “General Principles,” “Penalty Provisions,” and “Supplementary Provisions,” clarifying responsibility pursuit and connection rules in the ecological and environmental field, reinforcing the rule of law guarantee bottom line. The General Principles section defines three types of responsibility: civil, administrative, and criminal, clarifies principles of responsibility attribution, periods of responsibility pursuit, and rules such as daily penalty calculation, divides responsibilities of governments, enterprises, third-party institutions, and other entities, regulates administrative law enforcement and ecological and environmental damage litigation procedures, and improves case transfer and supervision mechanisms.
The Penalty Provisions section establishes penalties for two types of situations: at the common level, for behaviors such as failure to obtain pollutant discharge permits, excessive discharge, and evading supervision, it establishes penalties such as fines and production suspension for rectification, and pursues criminal responsibility for crimes; at the classified level, for atmospheric, water, soil, and other pollution as well as ecological destruction and violations of green and low-carbon obligations, it clarifies corresponding penalty subjects and ranges.
The Supplementary Provisions clarify legal application priorities, authorize adjustments to ecological and environmental supervision systems, formulate military environmental protection measures, determine the effective date of the code, and simultaneously abolish 10 existing laws including the Environmental Protection Law, achieving legal system coordination.
3. Significance of Ecological and Environmental Law Code Compilation
Compiling the ecological and environmental law code is legislation to achieve the national task of “protecting and improving the living environment and ecological environment.” The most important content of this law is to clearly stipulate the obligations and responsibilities of the “state” and “government” to provide ecological and environmental public goods and services for current and future generations, establish a national ecological and environmental governance system, grant government ecological and environmental management administrative powers, establish ecological and environmental management systems, synergistically promote pollution reduction, carbon reduction, green expansion, and growth, and safeguard people’s ecological and environmental rights and interests.
The code compilation transforms the previous legislative approach that targeted single ecological elements as protection objectives, emphasizing systematic protection concepts. It focuses on important links and areas of green and low-carbon development closely related to ecological and environmental protection, establishing and improving related legal systems. It selects and incorporates or reflects the essence and key points of existing legal institutional norms regarding watersheds, regions, natural resources, biodiversity, and other ecological elements and ecosystems, as well as circular economy, energy conservation, and other aspects into the draft, maintaining a certain degree of openness and compatibility in the code.
The compilation of the ecological and environmental law code uses codified legislative methods to systematically integrate, compile, revise, and comprehensively enhance China’s existing ecological and environmental legal institutional mechanisms and rules and norms, while adapting to new situations and requirements through necessary institutional innovation, enhancing the systematic, integrity, synergy, and timeliness of China’s ecological and environmental legal systems, providing more lasting, stable, and comprehensive legal guarantees for ecological and environmental protection.
