CHINA: An Introduction to Energy & Natural Resources (PRC Firms)

A New Era of Environmental Rule of Law in the Age of Codification: Institutional Significance of the Ecological Environment Code and New Opportunities for Legal Services

On 12 March 2026, the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress voted to adopt the Ecological Environment Code of the People’s Republic of China (the “Code”), which will come into force on 15 August of the same year. This is China’s second law titled “Code”, following the Civil Code, and also the world’s first comprehensive code under the heading “Ecological Environment”. For lawyers and in-house legal counsel of enterprises, this is not only a new piece of legislation, but also a systematic reset of the methodology of legal application.

Deep significance of codification

The legislation in the ecological and environmental sector has long been characterised by fragmentation. Separate legislation and revision of individual laws, such as the Law on Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution, the Law on Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, the Law on Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution and the Law on Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, have led to overlapping provisions, inconsistent standards and weak interconnection in law enforcement and judicial practice. Enterprise compliance management has also been burdened by multiple regimes and repeated compliance efforts.

Adopting a moderate codification approach, the Code systematically integrates and upgrades basic concepts, fundamental systems and liability frameworks. Its significance lies in three aspects:

• coordination of the normative system – it connects scattered normative groups via unified concepts, principles and systems;
• modernisation of governance philosophy – it enshrines the co-ordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth in legislation, translating the concept of ecological civilisation into enforceable legal norms; and
• Chinese expression of global environmental governance – it provides an original institutional sample in the field of public-law codification.

It is foreseeable that the implementation of the Code will promote the in-depth alignment of judicial judgment standards, administrative law enforcement boundaries and enterprise compliance benchmarks, which will have a far-reaching impact on both legal practice and enterprise compliance.

Key changes in the institutional framework

The Code promotes the systematic integration of legal regimes related to pollution prevention and control, ecological protection, and green and low-carbon development. Practitioners should pay close attention to four key changes.

• First, ecological environment zoning control and the “Three Lines and One List” (ecological protection red line, environmental quality bottom line, resource utilisation ceiling and ecological environment access list) are incorporated into the Code, making the legal boundaries for project site selection and planning layout more rigid.
• Second, the pollutant discharge permit has become the core of fixed-source pollution management. Compliance obligations of enterprises related to emission, monitoring, account-keeping and information disclosure are all administered under a single permit, and “discharge beyond the permit” will directly trigger legal liability.
• Third, the dual-carbon system is systematically incorporated into the Code. Systems such as dual control of carbon emissions, carbon emission trading, carbon footprint management, carbon sinks, green electricity and green certificates, and extended producer responsibility are elevated from policy arrangements to legal obligations.
• Fourth, legal liability has become stricter. The systematic combination of continuous daily penalties, doubled fines, industry prohibition, detention, reversed burden of proof, punitive damages and other mechanisms will completely reverse the long-standing problem of the cost of abiding by the law being higher than the cost of breaking the law seen in the era of the Code.

New opportunities for legal services

For the legal service industry, the Code is not only an update of professional knowledge, but also a reconstruction of business structure. Based on the long-term practical observations of Sunshine Law Firm in serving the energy and environmental fields, we put forward five new business opportunities.

• Rebuilding enterprise environmental compliance systems: Pollutant discharge permit and environmental impact assessment (EIA) compliance, ESG information disclosure and full life cycle compliance review will become regular tasks for the legal departments of large enterprises and external lawyers. The original project-based response compliance model needs to be upgraded to systematic governance.
• In-depth expansion of dual-carbon legal services: From carbon quota settlement, Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) development and carbon asset securitisation to carbon data verification, carbon footprint certification and carbon information disclosure, dual carbon is moving from a peripheral topic to the main track of legal practice.
• Professional upgrading of environmental dispute resolution: Ecological and environmental damage compensation, environmental public interest litigation, pollution tort and carbon market trading disputes are characterised by high value and high technical complexity, which leads to higher requirements with respect to lawyers’ professional competence and interdisciplinary collaboration ability.
• Green investment, green financing and cross-border compliance as new growth engines: Business instruments such as green credits, transition finance and green bonds, and the response to international green rules, will become important for collaboration between lawyers and in-house legal counsel.

法典时代的环境法治新局：《生态环境法典》的制度意义与法律服务新空间

2026年3月12日，十四届全国人大四次会议表决通过《中华人民共和国生态环境法典》，同年8月15日施行。这是我国继《民法典》后第二部以“法典”命名的法律，也是世界首部以“生态环境”命名的综合性法典。对律师和企业法务负责人来说，这不仅是一部新法，更是一次法律适用逻辑的系统重置。

法典化的深层意义

生态环境领域立法“碎片化”现象由来已久。针对《大气污染防治法》《水污染防治法》《土壤污染防治法》《固体废物污染环境防治法》等单行法分别立法、分别修订，条文重复、标准不一、衔接不畅的问题在执法与司法中屡见不鲜。企业合规管理亦苦于“多头对照、重复投入”。

《法典》采取“适度法典化”路径，对基础概念、基本制度、责任体系上进行贯通性的梳理与升级。其意义有三：

• 一是规范体系的协调化，以统一概念、原则和制度串联分散规范群；
• 二是治理理念的现代化，写入“降碳、减污、扩绿、增长”协同推进，将生态文明观念转化为可执行的法律规范；
• 三是全球环境治理的中国表达，在公法法典化领域提供了具有原创性的制度样本。

可以预见，《法典》的施行将推动司法裁判尺度、行政执法边界、企业合规标准深度统一，这对律师业务和企业合规都将带来深远影响。

制度架构中的关键变化

《法典》推进污染防治、生态保护、绿色低碳等相关制度系统整合。实务需关注四大关键变化：

• 其一，生态环境分区管控与“三线一单”（生态保护红线、环境质量底线、资源利用上线和生态环境准入清单）入典。项目选址和规划布局的法律边界更加刚性。
• 其二，排污许可成为固定污染源管理核心。企业所涉排放、监测、台账与信息公开等合规义务以一证统管，“证外排放”将直接触发法律责任。
• 其三，“双碳”制度系统入典。碳排放双控、碳排放权交易、碳足迹管理、碳汇、绿电绿证、生产者责任延伸等制度入典，使得应对气候变化的政策安排升格为法律义务。
• 其四，法律责任趋严。按日连续处罚、加倍罚款、行业禁入、拘留、举证责任倒置、惩罚性赔偿等系统组合，使得“守法成本高于违法成本”的老问题，将在法典时代被彻底改写。

法律服务的新空间

对法律服务业而言，《法典》不仅是一次执业知识的更新，更是业务结构的一次重构。从阳光所长期服务能源与环境领域的实务观察出发，提出五个新业务空间：

• 一是企业环境合规体系的再造。排污许可与环评合规、ESG信息披露、全生命周期合规审查将成为大型企业法务部和外部律师共同面对的常态化课题，原有“项目应对”合规模式需升级为“体系化治理”。
• 二是“双碳”法律服务的纵深拓展。从碳配额清缴、CCER开发、碳资产证券化，到碳数据核查、碳足迹认证、碳信息披露，"双碳"正在从边缘议题走向律师业务的主赛道。
• 三是环境争议解决的专业化升级。生态环境损害赔偿、环境公益诉讼、污染侵权、碳市场交易纠纷呈现高标的、高技术性特征，对律师的专业与跨学科协作能力提出更高要求。
• 四是绿色投融资与涉外合规成新增长极。绿色信贷、转型金融、绿色债券、国际绿色规则应对等业务，将成为律师与法务协同作战的重要场景。