China saw a drop in the number of cases involving environmental issues last year thanks to harsh punishments of polluters and the general public’s increasing awareness of the importance of environmental protection, the annual work reports from the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) showed. Chinese prosecutors accused 3,831 people of polluting the environment in 2023, a decrease of 11.3% year-on-year. They also initiated 84,000 public-interest lawsuits to supervise environmental administrations to better perform duties, according to the SPP report. “We’ve also provided a special report on procuratorial work in environmental protection for the NPC Standing Committee,” Ying Yong, SPP Procurator General, said when delivering his work report to the NPC session. Also in 2023, Chinese courts adjudicated 232,000 environmental cases, down 5.8% year-on-year. Among the cases, more than 5,300 focused on pollution, a decline of 11.5% compared to 2022, the SPC work report showed. “The drop in the figures indicates that the concept of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature has been deeply rooted in everyone’s mind, and judicial measures have also played a role in beautifying the country,” Zhang Jun, President of the SPC, said.
Over the past few years, prosecutors and judges across the country have taken various measures to strengthen environmental protection and advance sustainable development. For example, while increasing penalties for polluters, Chinese courts have been required to guide them to repair the damaged environment and prevent pollution through upgrading technologies. In addition, the number of environmental tribunals increased to over 2,800 last year from about 500 in 2016 to improve the professionalism of relevant case handling, the top court added. With strong implementation of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River Protection Laws, the SPP also said in its work report that it has worked with the China Coast Guard to jointly crack down on illegal sand mining, and guided prosecutors in Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin to monitor exotic species, prevent desertification and enhance the protection of black soil resources. Although environmental violations and crimes are being reduced, the top judicial authorities stressed that efforts to promote environmental conservation and tighten supervision in this area will not be weakened.
President Xi Jinping highlighted the importance of science and technology in tackling pollution, giving the example of how the use of new energy vehicles (NEVs) has empowered environmental and ecological protection. Official statistics showed that in 2023, China produced 9.58 million new energy vehicles, sold 9.49 million and exported 1.2 million, marking a 77.6% year-on-year increase and maintaining its position as the world’s leading NEV exporter.
China became the world’s first developing nation to roll out across-the-board measures to tackle air pollution caused by PM2.5 – particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less – in 2013. China has been the country with the fastest improvement in air quality in the world, with the average concentration of PM2.5 nationwide decreasing from 46 micrograms per cubic meter in 2015 to 30 mcg/cubic meter in 2023, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. In Beijing, the concentration decreased from 89.5 mcg/cubic meter in 2013 to 32 mcg/cubic meter in 2023, and the number of days with heavy air pollution went down from 58 to only eight during the period. The nation’s treatment of air pollution directly and indirectly stimulated investments of about CNY4 trillion between 2013 and 2023, leading to GDP growth of CNY5 trillion, the China Daily reports.
