June 5th is World Environment Day. The Supreme People's Court held a press conference to release the latest achievements in China's environmental justice, including the "China Environmental Resources Trial (2023)", "China Environmental Justice Development Report (2023)", and typical cases (the full text of the report and typical cases can be found in the QR code). Yang Linping, member of the Party Group and Vice President of the Supreme People's Court, Lv Zhongmei, President of the Environmental Resources Law Research Association of the China Law Society, and Wu Zhaoxiang, President of the Environmental Resources Trial Division of the Supreme People's Court, attended the press conference and answered questions from reporters. Lin Wenwen, spokesperson for the Supreme People's Court, presided over the press conference. The process of ecological environment rule of law effectively promotes the construction of ecological civilization, which is the greatest of the country. Over the past decade, the people's courts have actively practiced the concept that green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as gold and silver, and have made great efforts to protect a good ecological environment, which is the most universal welfare of people's livelihood. The work of environmental resource adjudication has achieved significant results. In 2023, what new achievements have the People's Courts made in fully exerting their judicial functions and serving the comprehensive promotion of the construction of a beautiful China? In response, Yang Linping pointed out at the press conference that the people's courts should increase their efforts in judicial protection of the environmental rights and interests of the people, and serve to deepen the fight against pollution prevention and control; To promote the cultivation and development of new productive forces, and to serve the green and low-carbon transformation of development methods; Strengthen the judicial protection efforts in the ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River, prevention and control of invasive alien species, and serve to enhance the diversity, stability, and sustainability of the ecosystem; Release the first "dual carbon" judicial opinion, etc., to serve the steady promotion of carbon peak and carbon neutrality; Prevent and resolve various risks and challenges, and firmly guard the bottom line of security for a beautiful China. In 2023, courts across the country accepted 259000 first instance environmental resource cases and concluded 232000 cases. The people's court has tried a number of landmark and typical cases, effectively promoting the process of ecological environment rule of law Yang Linping talked about two landmark cases at the press conference - the first civil public interest litigation case of illegal release of alien species in Jiangsu court, which punished the behavior of releasing catfish without authorization and damaging the ecological environment in accordance with the law, guiding the public to raise their awareness of biosafety; The criminal incidental civil public interest litigation case involving the theft and cutting of "Gu Nan Mu Wang" by the Guizhou court ordered the defendant to provide timely treatment to the 2600 year old "Gu Nan Mu Wang" who suffered damage from the theft and cutting, and to promote the establishment of a collaborative protection mechanism for rare trees in the local area. Professional construction is solidly advancing in 2023, and people's courts are solidly promoting professional construction and modernization of trial mechanisms. Yang Linping introduced that as of the end of 2023, more than 2800 specialized environmental resource trial institutions and organizations have been established in courts across the country. China has become the country with the widest coverage and most complete system of specialized environmental resource trial institutions. Significant progress has been made in unifying the functions of criminal, civil, and administrative trials. More than 1200 courts across the country have implemented the "three in one" approach to environmental and resource trials, and more than 500 courts have completed the "two in one" approach, accumulating rich experience for further integration and efficiency improvement. "We have noticed that China's environmental justice organizations pay more attention to systematic construction." According to Lv Zhongmei, in 2023, the number of specialized environmental resource trial institutions in China increased by 15.95% year-on-year, with steady growth and sustained health. Shaanxi Province has established 90 new environmental and resource protection courts, and Beijing has established a three-dimensional environmental and resource trial institution system of "1 High Court+1 Intermediate Court+7 Grassroots Courts". Heilongjiang, Hunan, Hubei and other provinces have set up environmental resource circuit trial points in key ecological functional areas to strengthen judicial protection. The reporter learned that in 2023, regional judicial cooperation will continue to increase. The Supreme People's Court has guided the courts of 10 provinces (districts) including Fujian to establish a National Park Judicial Protection Cooperation Alliance, the courts of 9 provinces (districts) along the Yellow River to sign the Shanxi Initiative to serve the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and the courts of 7 provinces (cities) in the Qinling Mountains to issue the Qinling Declaration on ecological and environmental judicial protection. In 2023, the people's courts will be guided by norms, enrich and improve judicial adjudication rules, and promote the modernization of the legal application norms system. This year, the Supreme People's Court issued five judicial interpretations, including disputes over ecological environment infringement liability and evidence in civil litigation of ecological environment infringement, to improve the rules of judgment in the field of environmental protection and investment; Publish three judicial documents, including opinions on the implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law and minutes on cracking down on illegal activities related to sea sand, to strengthen the supply of judicial policies. Publish 5 guiding cases on the protection of the Yangtze River, and 9 batches of 93 typical cases on the protection of cultural relics and heritage, fully leveraging the role of case business guidance and social education, warning, and leadership. Courts in various regions have also innovatively applied liability fulfillment methods such as technology transfer deduction and carbon sink subscription, continuously making good use of characteristic measures such as replanting and greening, proliferation and release, and labor compensation, providing more and better options for ecological environment restoration. On June 5th, the press conference also released two batches of typical cases of environmental resource trials in 2023 and typical cases of third-party service institutions engaged in fraud in the field of ecological environment being tried by the people's courts in accordance with the law. Wu Zhaoxiang introduced that 10 typical annual cases involve multiple fields such as environmental pollution prevention and control, rational development and utilization of resources, biodiversity protection, serving carbon peak and carbon neutrality, developing new quality productivity, and environmental governance and services. The trial of typical cases of fraud by third-party service institutions in the field of ecological environment by the people's court in accordance with the law reflects the people's court's firm implementation of the "strictest rule of law" concept, adherence to "all elements, all links, and all chains" punishment and prevention, adherence to "active performance of duties, collaborative governance", adherence to the coordinated application of legal responsibilities, and the formation of a judicial governance joint trial concept. Judicial capacity building continues to strengthen. In 2023, people's courts will focus on fairness and efficiency, continuously strengthen judicial capacity building, and promote modernization of judicial capacity. In conjunction with relevant departments, special rectification actions such as third-party environmental protection service agencies engaging in fraud and jointly releasing typical cases will be carried out to consolidate the joint efforts of ecological environment and resource protection; Implement the requirements of "focusing on front-end management and preventing diseases", promote compliance reform of enterprises involved in cases, and promote enterprises and industries to improve management and eliminate hidden dangers from the source; Strengthen judicial advice work and promote ecological environment governance; We will continue to build a legal publicity brand for World Environment Day and National Ecological Day, and work with CCTV to plan and produce film and television works such as "On the River" and "Environmental Justice Protects Green Waters and Mountains". We will continue to build and make good use of comprehensive ecological environment judicial protection (restoration) bases, promote the continuous improvement of the legal and environmental awareness of the whole society... In particular, we will strengthen digital empowerment, build a court "network" with higher standards, updated technology, and better solutions, launch and operate a litigation service "trust reply" platform, and build and operate a people's court case library and "legal answer network". We will strengthen the supervision, guidance, and clarification of environmental resource trial lines, and comprehensively enhance the modernization ability of the environmental resource trial team. In terms of deepening international exchanges and telling the story of environmental justice well, in 2023, the Supreme People's Court held international conferences such as the China Germany Environmental Justice Online Seminar, sent representatives to visit the United Nations Environment Programme, participated in environmental justice seminar activities in the United States, Indonesia, Singapore, and gave lectures for judicial training courses in BRICS countries; Recommend the fourth batch of 15 Chinese environmental justice cases and 2 environmental justice reports to the United Nations Environment Programme. Chinese courts have won widespread recognition and praise from the international community for their practical actions in supporting global ecological and environmental governance. "In 2024, we will seize the opportunity of compiling the Ecological Environment Code, carefully review and summarize the laws of environmental judicial practice, actively promote the solidification of mature judicial experience into legal provisions, and lay a legal foundation for better playing the role of environmental justice." Lv Zhongmei said. Yang Linping pointed out that the People's Court will focus on the theme of "fairness and efficiency" in the trial work, implement "from a political perspective and from the rule of law", adhere to active performance of duties, deepen ideological changes, strengthen capacity building, promote the substantive operation of "three in one", promote the construction of a diversified governance pattern, help the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and provide more powerful judicial services and guarantees for building a beautiful China with blue sky, green land, and clear water. (Lai Xin She)