(Bloomberg) — China’s legislators approved a sweeping new environmental law that’s seen as supporting President Xi Jinping’s ambition to strengthen ecological and climate protections while also ensuring economic growth.
The Ecological and Environmental Code endorsed Thursday at the closing session of the once-a-year National People’s Congress consolidates a raft of previous legislation, including on air quality, low-carbon development and penalties for corporate polluters.
Xi, a proponent of environmental protection for more than two decades, famously declared “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” in a 2005 speech, and is continuing to demand improvements under China’s latest Five-Year Plan through 2030.
The new law “demonstrates a kind of special attention and priority given to ecological and environmental protection,” said Ma Jun, founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based nonprofit. “That’s probably the most prominent point of it — to demonstrate that strong support and political will.”
Beyond serving as a political signal, the code was also created to address a problem: China has been prolific in writing environmental legislation in recent decades, but some of those directives overlap and conflict with each other. The revised package replaces 10 existing laws and covers everything from water and soil pollution to ecological conservation and species protection. Penalties for polluters are also largely left in place.
“You can’t have one law stipulating things one way, and another law stipulating them another way — it’s difficult for a company to comply,” said Wang Jin, a professor at Peking University Law School who provided suggestions to lawmakers in the drafting process. “Since 2015, China has been continuously revising its laws, and for environmental and resource laws in particular the penalties and enforcement measures have gotten stricter.”
China’s lawmakers pledged last week to upgrade environmental infrastructure in urban areas, to establish new conservation zones and national parks, and to improve the management of solid waste and other contamination. Draft 2026 budgets from the Ministry of Finance allocated about 62 billion yuan ($9 billion) for the control of air, water and soil pollution.
“Fresh headway will be made in keeping our skies blue, waters clear, and lands clean,” Premier Li Qiang said March 5, outlining an annual work report.
China has delivered environmental progress under Xi’s leadership, including reducing air pollution in the past decade and in delivering a world-beating deployment of clean energy. The continued attention on the issue comes as US President Donald Trump’s administration dismantles similar regulations, arguing that existing green protections are too onerous and present a barrier to growth.
The legislation endorsed in Beijing also includes a section on green and low-carbon development, read by some observers as paving the way for a future climate law, which would be a first for China.
Still, the new code does have drawbacks. It’s regarded as weakening legislation adopted in 2015 that enabled non-governmental organizations to file lawsuits against companies accused of failing to uphold environmental protections. “The scope and space for NGO organizations to bring lawsuits will be compressed and reduced by the government,” with prosecutors to take on more of the oversight responsibilities that previously fell to NGOs, said Wang.
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