The National People's Congress passed the Amendment to the
Chinese Environmental Protection Law (the "Amendment") on
April 24, 2014. The amended Environmental Protection Law will take
effect on Jan. 1, 2015.
The Chinese Environmental Protection Law (the "EPL")
was enacted in 1989. The revisions in the Amendment came after 25
years of enforcement. The first draft of the Amendment was
introduced in August 2012, and went through four rounds of
deliberation before finally being passed by the National
People's Congress. Scholars, governmental agencies, companies,
and other interested parties had been debating the revisions for
almost two years.
Background
Over the past decades, China has grown into the world's
largest manufacturer, energy producer, and energy consumer. It has,
however, suffered from the side effects of this rapid development.
Air, soil, and water pollution have all reached alarming levels,
and China has become the greatest polluter in the world.
