China

• Author: Tad Ferris and Steve Wolfson
• Pages: 739-758

CHAPTER 37

China

TAD FERRIS AND STEVE WOLFSON*

I. Introduction

China’s ongoing environmental crisis is a familiar story to those who follow

the headlines around the world, including in China: small particulate pollu-

tion in Beijing and other cities has soared well above the levels considered

safe, at times forcing grounding of airplane flights, and causing widespread

outcry; some Chinese citizens lack access to safe drinking water, while a

number of cities lack municipal wastewater treatment; and the country leads

the world in total greenhouse gas emissions, giving rise to air pollution

emissions estimated to contribute to air quality violations as far away as the

United States.

Although China’s economic growth rates have been impressive for years,

outside observers, the Chinese public, and the government have recently

and more broadly come to recognize the high costs of the environmental

crisis to the health of the population and economy overall. This recognition

is perhaps no surprise, as studies and media reports of the crisis reflect an

alarming environmental situation. For instance, the World Bank estimates

that the combined costs of pollution, including the effects on crops, forests,

and public health, are more than 3.5 percent of GDP.1 Air pollution in China

reportedly kills more than one million people annually.2

Pollution has led to growing calls for action inside China. Hu Jintao, the

former secretary general, indicated at the 18th Communist Party Congress in

November 2012 that China is facing “tightening resource constraints, ram-

pant pollution, and worsening environmental degradation.”3 Concomitantly,

the State Council, the highest administrative body in China’s executive

branch, described China’s environmental situation as extremely grim despite

positive progress, and highlighted the fact that China, in just a 20-year

*The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of

their organizations or any other entity. The authors wish to thank Brett Grosko for his

assistance in drafting sections III and V–IX. The authors also wish to thank Weiwei Luo

for her assistance with the discussion of the Marine Environmental Protection Law.

739

period, is grappling with industrialization problems Western countries expe-

rienced during a span of over 100 years. Nevertheless, despite these prob-

lems, China is making significant progress in establishing institutions, laws,

and discrete directives to address environmental issues.

In 1979, China enacted the cornerstone Environmental Protection Law

(EPL),4 (amended in 1989, and recently in 2014), and today has more than 20

statutes addressing topics from air pollution and climate change to forestry

and fisheries, resulting in a patchwork of authority for environmental pro-

tection. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), a cabinet-level

ministry in the executive branch, has authority to issue regulations to address

environmental pollution, as well as prepare or comment on proposals for

national pollution-focused legislation. The MEP has a Beijing headquarters

office and allied research institutes, as well as six regional supervision cen-

ters (RSCs).5 As a general matter, under the Chinese environmental legal

regime, new projects in China must comply with environmental impact

reporting requirements and also incorporate pollution control measures at

the design, construction, and operational stages (the “Three Simultaneous”

policy).

On the legislative side, the National People’s Congress (NPC), the high-

est legislative body in China, has authority to enact national legislation and

oversee implementation of laws. The State Council, an administrative body

of the NPC, has authority to review legislative proposals prior to referral to

the NPC, promulgate regulations, issue decisions and orders, and oversee

the work of ministries. The State Council’s Office of Legislative Affairs pre-

pares annual and five-year legislative drafting plans, which provide impor-

tant cues as to what legislative changes the NPC is likely to consider.6

This chapter provides a brief overview of China’s environmental and

natural resources law regime and touches on some of the challenges that

China faces in the field of environmental regulation. Given the scope of the

present volume, the discussion in this chapter of specific statutes and reg-

ulations has necessarily been sharply abbreviated. Chinese cultural and

legal systems differ from those of the United States in ways that result in

some topics being framed differently in practice than in the subheadings

below, which are utilized for consistency with the other chapters of this

volume.

II. Air and Climate Change

The principal legal measure governing the control of air pollution from

mobile and stationary sources is the 1987 Air Pollution Prevention and Con-

trol Law (APPCL),7 amended in 1995 and again in 2000. Under the APPCL,

vehicles and vessels are prohibited from emitting pollution in amounts

exceeding prescribed standards.8 Stationary sources of air pollution must

register with the local environmental protection bureaus (EPBs) and submit

an emission report.9

740 INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW