On 12 March 2026, the PRC National People’s Congress passed the Ecological and Environmental Code (“EEC”). It will enter into effect on 15 August 2026.
After the PRC Civil Code, which was the first combined codification of the PRC civil law and which entered into effect on 1 January 2021, the EEC is the second piece of legislation in China to be named a “Code”. The EEC consolidates and restructures China’s previously fragmented environmental laws and regulations into one unified coherent framework. At the same time, it addresses gaps in previous legislations to strengthen key areas of environmental protection.
This newsletter provides an overview of the EEC’s codification approach, its structure, and some key items.
1. Codification Approach
Unlike the PRC Civil Code, which is a comprehensive and exhaustive codification of the entire PRC civil law, the EEC takes a more compromising moderate approach. It consolidates core environmental rules into a unified framework while deliberately leaving room for other standalone statutes to operate alongside it. This approach provides a possible solution to an inherent issue. On the one hand, a legal code is expected to provide certainty, stability and systematic coherence. On the other hand, environmental issues are complex and fast-evolving. Further, environmental law extends to both public and private law, and encompasses topics which are at very different stages of legal development.
In consequence, the EEC establishes a framework of dual legal sources where the ECC and other standalone statutes coexist and complement one another. Further, the ECC is designed to evolve, allowing for amendments and revisions over time, so that it can be updated in line with changing social and environmental conditions.
In dealing with existing environmental regulations, the EEC distinguishes between three different categories:
- The first category covers ten existing environmental statutes have been fully incorporated and revised into the EEC. They are the PRC Environmental Protection Law, the PRC Environmental Impact Assessment Law, the PRC Cleaner Production Promotion Law, the PRC Marine Environment Protection Law, the PRC Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the PRC Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the PRC Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the PRC Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the PRC Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law, and the PRC Radioactive Pollution Prevention and Control Law. Once the EEC enters into effect, these ten laws will be simultaneously repealed.
- The second category covers provisions governing watersheds, regional ecosystems, natural resources, biodiversity, circular economy, and energy conservation. Rather than fully incorporating them into the EEC, the EEC extracts and re-iterates their core principles and rules. The relevant standalone statutes, including the PRC Forest Law, the PRC Grassland Law, the PRC Wetlands Protection Law, the PRC Island Protection Law, the PRC Land Administration Law, the PRC Black Soil Protection Law, the PRC Mineral Resources Law, the PRC Water Law, the PRC Fisheries Law, the PRC Sea Area Use Administration Law, the PRC Deep Seabed Resources Exploration and Exploitation Law, the PRC Wildlife Protection Law, the PRC National Parks Law, the PRC Yangtze River Protection Law, the PRC Yellow River Protection Law, the PRC Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law, the PRC Soil and Water Conservation Law, the PRC Desertification Prevention and Control Law, the PRC Circular Economy Promotion Law, the PRC Energy Law, the PRC Energy Conservation Law, and the PRC Renewable Energy Law, will remain in force also after the EEC has become effective. Accordingly, the relevant provisions of the EEC are designed to maintain a degree of openness and compatibility with this broader legislative framework. The existing statutes that remain in force alongside the EEC will constitute special laws (lex specialis) as compared to the EEC as the more general law (lex generalis). As more specific legislation, these statutes will take precedence and prevail over the EEC in their respective areas of application.
- The third category addresses areas where dedicated legislation does not yet exist, namely climate change response, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and green low-carbon development. The EEC introduces basic and directional provisions in these areas for future legislation, reflecting the EEC’s broader and forward-looking character.
2. Main Structure and Key Highlights
>> The EEC is organized into the following five parts, comprising a total of 1,242 articles:
- General Provisions
This part forms the structural foundation of the EEC and functions as the overarching framework that governs all subsequent parts.
- Pollution Prevention and Control
This part is the most extensive one, comprising nine sub-parts and 525 articles. It absorbs the content of existing standalone pollution prevention statutes and is structured around the three major pollution control campaigns (clean air, clean water, and clean soil). It addresses types of pollution closely linked to daily life.
- Ecological Protection
This part embodies a systematic governance philosophy of shifting from the protection of individual elements to a comprehensive ecosystem-based management, aiming to comprehensively cover all major terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
- Green and Low-Carbon Development
This part covers the transformation of certain existing guidelines and policies on “dual carbon” into formal law for the first time and further aligns China’s domestic environmental rules with international governance standards.
- Legal Liability and Supplementary Provisions
This part establishes a comprehensive liability system, and consolidates administrative law enforcement, ecological environmental damage compensation, marine ecological damage compensation, civil and administrative public interest litigation, etc.
>> Key Highlights
- Introduction of Certain Legislation Principles
The EEC introduces the following legislation principles:
- Broader Coverage of New Issues
The ECC introduces regulations on various new issues, which include but are not limited to the following:
- Implementation of Stricter Regulations
Compared with existing laws and regulations, the ECC adopts stricter regulations/penalties in various aspects. They include but are not limited to the following:
- International vision adopted
The international aspect of the ECC is embodied in (but not limited to) the following:
3. Conclusion
The EEC marks a significant step towards transforming the currently fragmented, sector-specific legislation into a more comprehensive and systematic framework. It is expected that ecological and environmental compliance will become increasingly important for business operations in China.
The key takeaway for businesses is that compliance with EEC along with other ecological and environmental regulations requires a differentiated approach. Where existing laws will be repealed and absorbed into the EEC, the EEC will be the sole governing legal instrument in the respective field. Where standalone statutes continue to exist alongside the EEC, both the EEC’s overarching principles and specific standalone statutes must be taken into account and be complied with. Businesses operating in China should follow up and comply with both the EEC and other legislative status and developments in the ecological and environmental field.
