China’s legal system is largely a civil law system. The national legislative power is exercised by the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. The NPC is responsible for criminal law, civil law, state organ law and other basic laws. While the NPC is not in session, the Standing Committee of the NPC is responsible for supplementing and amending parts of the laws promulgated by the NPC, provided they do not contradict with the basic principles of these laws. There is no division of legislative power between the central government and the provincial governments in China. The most important policy documents in China are the Five Year Plans that set the overall direction of China’s economy and often include top-level targets. These plans are complemented by laws, passed by the NPC, and policies developed by government ministries.
Following the 2018 amendments, the Constitution of China addresses environmental governance. The preamble of the amendments sets a national development vision aiming at creating an "ecological civilisation". According to Zhu, 2021, article 89(6) of the Constitution charges the executive branch, and more specifically the State Council of the Central People's Government to implement this goal. Chinese climate legislation is thus made of State Council decrees, and to a further extent decree-laws from ministries. However, only State Council decrees are classified as "state policy". Articles 9, 20(5) and 26 contain further climate-related clauses.
Further to this, the Civil Code as last amended in 2020 states in article 9 that persons conducting civil activities shall act in order to enable the conservation of resources and protection of the ecological environment. Article 509 makes these principles part of contract law. Further ecologically-related clauses include articles 286 326, 346 and 619.
- Home
- ›
- China
China
Federative (22 provinces, 5 autonomus regions)
Political Groups
G77, G20
World Bank Income Group
Upper middle income
Global Climate Risk Index
55.5
The annually published Global Climate Risk Index analyses to what extent countries have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.).
Published by German Watch https://www.germanwatch.org/en/criShare of Global Emissions
24.36%
Legislation
7
Laws, Acts, Constitutions (legislative branch)
Policies
25
Policies, strategies, decrees, action plans (from executive branch)
Litigation
Coming soon
Court cases and tribunal proceedings
Targets
112
Climate targets in National Law & Policy
Latest Documents
, 2022
China's submission to the global stocktake, Submission to the Global Stocktake from China in 2022
, 2022
In February 2022, the government released guidelines promoting the High-Quality Development of the Iron and Steel Industry and that required to reach peak CO2 emissions by 2030. In July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved a plan to oblige companies in steel, building materials, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, consumer goods, equipment ma...
, 2022
The plan was introduced by a notice from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission. According to this plan, new-build public buildings and factories in town and cities should be covered at 50% by solar panels by 2025.
, 2022
This document provides guidelines on leveraging the role of fiscal policies to achieve the country's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, set in 2021 in the "1+N" Action Plan. According to the guidelines, the country will update its financial policy framework by 2030 to support green and low-carbon development, notably making use of market mechanisms like carbon and...
, 2022
This document sets the government strategy to boost low-carbon hydrogen supply in the country and notably decarbonise high-energy-consuming and high-emission industries.It explicitly favours green hydrogen over grey hydrogen. By 2025, the plan hopes that China will enjoy a relatively complete system and policy environment for the development of the hydrogen energy industry...
Targets (112)
Request to download all target data (.csv)- Target net zero by 2060Economy-wide | Target year: 2060Source: 14th Five-Year Plan
- Cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020Economy-wide: Economy Wide | Target year: 2020Source: National Plan For Tackling Climate Change 2014-2020
- The value-added CO2 emissions per unit of industry will fall by about 50% by 2020 against a 2005 baselineIndustry: Energy Intensity | Target year: 2020Source: National Plan For Tackling Climate Change 2014-2020
- By 2015, the level of carbon dioxide emissions from large-scale power generation enterprise groups will be controlled at 650 g/kWhIndustry: Energy Intensity | Target year: 2015Source: National Plan For Tackling Climate Change 2014-2020
- 1000 low-carbon commercial pilot by 2020: selected commercial establishments such as representative stores, hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions to carry out pilot projects, and strengthen the operation and supply chain management through the enhancement of new technologies such as energy-saving and renewable energy, and significantly reduce CO2 emissions from pilot commercial organizations.Tourism: Renewable Energy | Target year: 2020Source: National Plan For Tackling Climate Change 2014-2020