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Environmental Legislation in China: Achievements, Challenges and Trends

Author

Listed:
  • Zhilin Mu

    (Environment Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the National People's Congress, Beijing 100805, China)

  • Shuchun Bu

    (Office of Development and Reform, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng 224051, China)

  • Bing Xue

    (Key Lab of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 10016, China
    Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam 14467, Germany)

Abstract

Compared to the environmental legislation of many developed countries, China’s environmental legislation was initiated late, beginning in 1979, but nevertheless has obtained considerable achievements. As many as thirty environmental laws have provided rules regarding prevention and control of pollution, resource utilization, and ecological protection in China. However, China’s environmental legislation still faces a series of challenges and problems, including that the sustainable development concept has not yet been fully implemented, as well as presence of gaps and non-coordination phenomena between laws and regulations, unclear responsibility, imperfect system design, imbalance between rights and obligations, higher impacts resulted from the GDP-centralized economy, lack of operability and instruments in the legal content, as well as difficulty of public participation. In contrast, China’s environmental legislation has improved, as a result of learning from experience in developed countries and introducing innovations stimulated by domestic environmental pressure. Looking into the future, increased attention to environmental protection and ecological consciousness paid by China’s new leaders will bring a valuable opportunity to China’s further development concerning environmental legislation. In the future, there are prospects for the gradual improvement of legal approaches, continuous improvements of legislation to mitigate environmental problems, and more opportunities to strengthen public participation can be predicted.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhilin Mu & Shuchun Bu & Bing Xue, 2014. "Environmental Legislation in China: Achievements, Challenges and Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:12:p:8967-8979:d:43173
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jianhuan Huang & Jiejin Xia, 2016. "Regional Competition, Heterogeneous Factors and Pollution Intensity in China: A Spatial Econometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-26, February.
    2. Bing Xue & Mario Tobias, 2015. "Sustainability in China: Bridging Global Knowledge with Local Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-7, March.
    3. Ahmed, Zahoor & Asghar, Muhammad Mansoor & Malik, Muhammad Nasir & Nawaz, Kishwar, 2020. "Moving towards a sustainable environment: The dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. James K. Hammitt & Fangli Geng & Xiaoqi Guo & Chris P. Nielsen, 2019. "Valuing mortality risk in China: Comparing stated-preference estimates from 2005 and 2016," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 167-186, June.
    5. Mehran Idris Khan & Yen-Chiang Chang, 2018. "Environmental Challenges and Current Practices in China—A Thorough Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    6. Chunying Cui & Dengke He & Ziwei Yan, 2023. "The Environment–Economy Synergistic Improvement Effect of the “Two-Oriented Society” Pilot Area in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, January.
    7. Ying Zhou & Huimin Wang & Xiaohui An, 2024. "The criminal law protection mechanism for sustainable development in China – an empirical analysis of environmental pollution crime," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Wang, Shubin & Zhao, Erlong & Razzaq, Hafiz Kashif, 2022. "Dynamic role of renewable energy efficiency, natural resources, and climate technologies in realizing environmental sustainability: Implications for China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 1095-1104.
    9. Yinhao Wu & Changhong Miao & Jianming Miao & Yan Zhang, 2020. "How Does Environmental Regulation Affect the Location of New Polluting Firms? Exploring the Agglomeration Threshold of Effective Environmental Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Chang, Yen-Chiang & Wang, Chuanliang & Khan, Mehran Idris & Wang, Nannan, 2020. "The legal system for environmental protection during exploration and exploitation of marine mineral resources in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    11. Kai Xu & Guangdong Tian, 2022. "Codification and Prospect of China’s Codification of Environmental Law from the Perspective of Global Environmental Governance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-14, August.
    12. Rongzhen Ma & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2016. "Comparison of environmental laws publications in Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Science Index: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(1), pages 227-239, October.

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