Annual Observation Report on Environmental Legislation in China(2023)
The basic feature of China's environmental legislation in 2023 is the expansion of the scope of legislation.The system for protecting the human settlement environment has been stipulated to different degrees and from different perspectives in legislation at different levels,and ecological protection has gradually become a relatively independent subject of legislation.The codification of ecological and environmental code,which has entered the legislative planning stage,has already begun to influence environmental legislative research and practice.The pace of enacting and amending environmental laws and administrative regulations has slowed down,while legislation on ecological protection in special regions has been introduced,and the number of laws and regulations incorporating environmental protection systems has gradually increased.Judicial interpretations on environmental issues continue to play a crucial role in system construction.Among the environmental departmental regulations,new progress has been made primarily in carbon emission reduction legislation,while other systems are also continually evolving.Overall,local environmental legislation has been progressing smoothly along the track formed over the years,with some meaningful innovations emerging in legislative themes and approaches,including an increase in legislation on the human settlement environment and the integration of environmental protection systems into other legislation.However,issues such as unclear division of local regulations and local government rules,enthusiasm for regional protection legislation and collaborative legislation,and inadequate design of enforcement rules still exist,indicating considerable room for improvement in the substantive content of local environmental legislation.Research on environmental legislation mainly focuses on topics such as the codification of ecological and environmental code and legislation on environmental public interest litigation.Studies on the environmental legal system still exhibit a spot-like concentrated characteristic,often associated with the codification of ecological and environmental code,and there is a gradual increase in the evaluation and analysis of local environmental legislation.