Passed by the National People’s Congress in March, the legal framework is China’s second formal code, following the Civil Code enacted in 2020.
Spanning five chapters with more than 1,200 articles, it covers key areas such as pollution control, ecological conservation, and green, low-carbon development.
In addition, it regulates new types of pollution – such as light, electromagnetic radiation, organic chemicals, and pharmaceuticals – while requiring companies to file annual emissions reports and register pollution-related facilities.
The code also turns the country’s “dual carbon” goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 from policy aspirations into statutory mandates.
Yau Wing-kwong, founder and chief executive officer of the Environmental Association, noted that the code effectively consolidated over 30 existing national environment-related statutes.
“It is really consolidating all these laws and making it easier for businesses and people to understand, and also easier to monitor and enforce,” he explained.
Yau pointed out the code also opens up greater scope for collaboration between Hong Kong and cities in the GBA.
“We have been building butterfly gardens in Hong Kong and also over the border with Shenzhen and even Macao. So the ecological corridor between butterflies or other species like birds and so on. They are already in practice,” he said.
“But again, conservation, study and citizen science – and getting people involved – can be enhanced and go further.”
Further cooperation, Yau noted, could also include research on renewable energy and waste recycling initiatives.