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China’s adaptation governance in a world of carbon neutrality

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Abstract

China has mainly relied on plans and policies to deal with adaptation challenges while climate legislation at the national level encounters with series of hurdles. Adaptation and environmental law are deeply entangled with each other, and a sustainable adaptation response entails current environmental law to reform for better adaptation regulation. This article reveals that China’s environmental law faces some legal challenges of applying its rules, especially tort rules, to distribute climate-induced loss and damages. Nonetheless, a possible solution to facilitate a better or more aggressive adaptation regulation would be establishing the linkage between loss and damage with climate change, mainstreaming adaptation within extant legal instruments and turning to EIA-based climate litigation.

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Notes

  1. Smit et al. (2000); Pielke (1998); IPCC (2007).

  2. Agrawala (2005, 40).

  3. Macintosh (2010, 41).

  4. Wilk and Wittgren (2009, 18).

  5. OECD (2009, 140).

  6. McDonald (2010, 23).

  7. Tan (2010, 138).

  8. OECD (2009, 141).

  9. Durban Local Government Convention (2011).

  10. National People’s Congress (2011; ch. 21).

  11. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), opened for signature 4 June 1992, entered into force 21 March 1994, 1771 UNTS 107, art. 4, 1 (b).

  12. Cao and Jiang (2010).

  13. NDRC (2007).

  14. NDRC (2007).

  15. Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (2008).

  16. Cao and Jiang (2010).

  17. Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China (2010).

  18. Moore (2011, 157).

  19. MEE (2021).

  20. Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (2011).

  21. Hubei Provincial Government (2010).

  22. Ibid.

  23. Peng (2015).

  24. Standing Committee of Tianjin People’s Congress (2021).

  25. Lesnikowski (2016, 827).

  26. Qi et al. (2007, 8).

  27. Lin (2012, 300).

  28. McDonald (2010, 36).

  29. Standing Committee of National People’s Congress (2009).

  30. Ibid.

  31. NDRC (2011).

  32. Act of the People’s Republic of China on Addressing Climate Change, draft proposal, 31 March 2012, http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2012-03/31/content_25035673.htm (accessed 2 June 2023).

  33. Cao (2020).

  34. Supra note 32.

  35. Huang, S (2014).

  36. Ibid.

  37. China Carbon Forum (2012).

  38. China Meteorological Administration (2008).

  39. Qi (2018, 343).

  40. Shanxi Provincial Government (2011).

  41. Shanxi Provincial Government (2010).

  42. Shanxi Provincial Government (2010), art. 4.

  43. Shanxi Provincial Government (2010), art. 6–13.

  44. Fickling (2009).

  45. Carbon Tax Act, SBC 2008; Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic).

  46. Climate Change Act 2008 (UK); Vance (2012).

  47. Hilson (2013, 368).

  48. Bhandari et al. (2022).

  49. Milly et al. (2008, 573).

  50. Ruhl (2010, 363).

  51. Nature Climate Change – Editorial (2019, 797).

  52. Kysar (2011, 4).

  53. Hsu (2008, 704).

  54. Civil Procedure Law, 2017, art. 119; Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of.

    the Civil Procedure Law, 2014, art. 91.

  55. Tang (2002, 185).

  56. Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court of Several Issues on the Application of Law in the Trial of.

    Disputes over Liability for Environmental Torts, 2020, art. 6 and 7.

  57. Zhang (2009, 176).

  58. Deng (2012, 112).

  59. Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province and a city of 10 million, lies in central China and suffered from serious flood in July 2021. According to official data, at least 302 people died and 55 went missing because of this province-wide floods.

  60. Huq et al. (2004, 35).

  61. Kok and de Coninck (2007, 587).

  62. NDRC (2007).

  63. Kok and de Coninck (2007).

  64. Mayer (2019, 274).

  65. The Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Assessment (2003).

  66. Directive 2014/52/EU amending Directive 2011/92/EU on the Assessment of the Effects of Certain Public and Private Projects on the Environment [2014] OJ L 124/1, art. 3(1) c.

  67. EIA Law, 2018, art. 17.

  68. He (2021, 427).

  69. Ibid.

  70. MEE, Catalogue for the Classified Administration of Environmental Impact Assessments for Construction Projects, 2021, art. 3.

  71. Administrative Litigation Law (Administrative Procedure Law), adopted on 4 April 1989, entered into force on 1 October 1990. It was amended in 2014 and 2017 respectively.

  72. Zhang (2019, 250).

  73. MEE (2018).

  74. See e.g., Wang Cuixiang et al. v. Shanxi EPB and MEE (王翠香等诉山西省环境保护厅等复议案), Final.

    Administrative Judgment No. 952, 2017, Higher People’s Court of Shanxi Province.

  75. ALL, 2017, art. 25.

  76. Zhai and Chang (2018, 379).

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Funding

This research has received funding support from the National Social Science Fund of China (20CFX063).

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  1. Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, PR China

    Xiangbai He

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He, X. China’s adaptation governance in a world of carbon neutrality. China-EU Law J (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12689-024-00107-w

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