China's legislation on ecological environment has achieved comprehensive and historic achievements
2024-07-08
With the deepening of reform and opening up and the continuous development of the economy and society, the people have gone from "hoping for food and clothing" to "hoping for environmental protection", and from "seeking survival" to "seeking ecology". This is a practical need for a beautiful ecological environment. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it has been more closely integrated with the fundamental purpose of the Party. A series of fundamental, pioneering, and long-term reforms have taken significant steps towards building a beautiful China, and China's ecological and environmental protection has undergone historic, transitional, and global changes. Among them, outstanding achievements have been made in the construction of the rule of law in the ecological environment. As the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently said in an interview with the Legal Daily, "Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China's ecological and environmental legal construction has entered a period of maximum legislative strength, strictest regulatory and law enforcement standards, and the most significant implementation effect of legal systems." Institutional protection, ecological environment reform and opening up, and ecological environment protection have always been closely linked. "The essence of environmental problems is a development issue, which arises and needs to be solved during development. It requires both step-by-step solutions and innovative development concepts." Xie Zhenhua, who previously served as China's Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs, said that since the reform and opening up, China has continuously developed and proposed the concept of coordinating economic and environmental contradictions as a guide for carrying out ecological and environmental protection work. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China included the construction of ecological civilization in the overall layout of the "Five in One" system, along with economic, political, cultural, and social development. It is required to integrate the construction of ecological civilization into all aspects and processes of economic, political, cultural, and social development, and build a socialist modernized strong country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and beautiful. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee held in November 2013 made arrangements to accelerate the construction of ecological civilization systems, proposing the establishment of a complete and systematic ecological civilization system, the implementation of the strictest source protection system, damage compensation system, and accountability system, the improvement of environmental governance and ecological restoration system, and the use of systems to protect the ecological environment. Since then, legislation in the field of ecological environment has shown distinct characteristics of accelerated pace of formulation and modification, wider coverage, and stronger targeting, achieving comprehensive, pioneering, and historic achievements. According to the person in charge of the Regulations and Standards Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, under the guidance of the Environmental Protection Law, covering various environmental elements such as water, gas, soil, and natural ecosystems such as mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasses, and sands, a comprehensive, pragmatic, and strict socialist ecological and environmental protection legal system with Chinese characteristics has been preliminarily formed. The ecological and environmental protection legal system has achieved comprehensive improvement from quantity to quality, gradually establishing the "four beams and eight pillars" of China's ecological and environmental protection system. At present, there are more than 30 effective laws in the field of ecological and environmental protection, among which 19 ecological and environmental laws are mainly enforced by the ecological and environmental regulatory authorities, accounting for about one fifteenth of the total effective laws currently in effect; There are over 40 Party regulations closely related to ecological environment protection, over 30 administrative regulations, 87 departmental rules, and over 400 administrative normative documents. The legal system has been restructured, and the ecological environment legal system has been restructured: incorporating new development concepts, ecological civilization construction, and the construction of a beautiful China into the 2018 constitutional amendment, establishing the constitutional status of ecological civilization; Revise the "strictest" environmental protection law in history, establish the basic concepts, principles, and systems that must be followed in the construction of ecological civilization in legal form, especially clarify specific measures to increase legal sanctions for environmental violations; Comprehensively revise the single law on ecological environment, which includes specialized laws on pollution prevention and control in areas such as atmosphere, water, soil, solid waste, noise, and radioactivity, as well as laws on ecological elements such as wetland protection and biosafety. Use legal means to defend the blue sky, clear water, and clean land; Innovate legislation on watershed and regional ecological environment, and carry out legislation on ecological environment protection for special geography, specific regions or watersheds, including the formulation of the Yangtze River Protection Law, Yellow River Protection Law, Black Soil Protection Law, and Qinghai Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law, comprehensively enhancing the "ecological value" of green water and green mountains. In addition, the Civil Code establishes the green principle as the basic principle of civil activities and sets up a special chapter to stipulate responsibilities for environmental pollution and ecological damage. The Criminal Law has been revised twice, lowering the threshold for environmental and resource protection crimes and incorporating environmental impact assessment and monitoring fraud into the scope of criminal sanctions, effectively deterring illegal and criminal activities in the ecological environment. The acceleration of the construction of ecological environment regulations within the Party has provided a strong and effective institutional guarantee for the implementation of the Party Central Committee's decision-making and deployment. The Party Constitution was revised. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China wrote "The CPC leads the people to build a socialist ecological civilization" into the Party Constitution. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China added "Strengthening the awareness that green waters and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains" to the Party Constitution. Develop special party regulations and documents, such as the "Regulations on Central Ecological Environment Protection Supervision Work", "Measures for Holding Party and Government Leaders Responsible for Ecological Environment Damage (Trial)", and "Regulations on the Audit of Natural Resource Assets Leaving the Office of Leading Cadres (Trial)". As an independent, special, and important component of China's ecological and environmental legal system, ecological and environmental standards are also being comprehensively optimized and upgraded. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the number of ecological and environmental standards has significantly increased, with a total of 1195 national ecological and environmental standards issued and 272 local pollutant discharge standards filed in accordance with the law. As of June 2024, there are currently 2415 valid national ecological environment standards and 248 valid local standards that have been filed in accordance with the law. "The structure of China's ecological environment standard system is relatively complete and basically adapted to the current level of economic and social development. The ecological environment standard system that supports the battle against pollution prevention and control has been basically established," said the main person in charge of the Regulations and Standards Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The continuous improvement of environmental quality and the improvement and development of the ecological environment legal system keep pace with the times, achieving overall upgrading and replacement. The ecological environment department, together with relevant departments, takes various measures to comprehensively and effectively promote the implementation of the ecological environment legal system, and uses the rule of law to promote the construction of a beautiful China. Under the effective protection of the rule of law in the ecological environment, the quality of the ecological environment continues to improve. The average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in prefecture level and above cities nationwide has decreased from 46 micrograms/cubic meter in 2015 to 30 micrograms/cubic meter in 2023, making China the country with the fastest improvement rate in global air quality. The proportion of high-quality surface water sections in China has reached 89.4%. The water quality of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River has been maintained as Class II for four consecutive years, and the black and odorous water bodies in cities at or above the prefecture level have been basically eliminated. The soil environmental risks have been effectively controlled, and the goal of zero import of solid waste has been achieved as scheduled. Ecological environment law enforcement and supervision are becoming stricter. The ecological environment department strictly punishes and punishes environmental violations in accordance with the law, allowing the law to grow teeth and significantly curbing the trend of malicious environmental violations. In 2023 alone, 79600 administrative penalty cases were handled in various regions, with a total fine of 6.27 billion yuan. The "rigid constraints" of law enforcement and supervision have gradually been established. At the same time, judicial and administrative organs are working together to increase the punishment for environmental pollution and ecological damage. The person in charge of the Regulations and Standards Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment stated that in the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will work with relevant departments to further enhance the systematic, holistic, and collaborative construction of the ecological environment rule of law, mainly promoting the improvement of the legal system for ecological environment protection from the following aspects: first, fully promote the compilation of the ecological environment code; Secondly, we will vigorously promote the revision of other ecological and environmental laws and regulations, such as the Ecological Environment Monitoring Regulations and the Chemical Substances Environmental Risk Management Regulations, to fill gaps and strengthen weaknesses; Thirdly, we will cooperate with the revision of the "Regulations on the Responsibility System for Ecological Environment Protection of Local Party and Government Leading Cadres", "Regulations on Central Ecological Environment Protection Supervision Work", and "Measures for Holding Party and Government Leading Cadres Responsible for Ecological Environment Damage (Trial)" to strengthen political constraints on ecological environment protection; Fourthly, we will continue to promote the construction of the ecological environment standard system and accelerate the formulation and revision of standards and specifications in key areas of building a beautiful China. (Lai Xin She)
Edit：Jia jia Responsible editor：Liling
Source：http://www.legaldaily.com.cn
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