402
Y. Pan
estimated that if Chinese people copy the modern American lifestyle, we would need
another 1.2 earths to meet the resource and energy demand. The capitalist industrial
society isn’t an ideal society for the Chinese people, who, enlightened by ecological
civilization, has continuously intensified the public awareness of green development
through different channels – from forest parks to religious venues, from street sculptures to toilet revolution, from public entertainment to community sanitation, from
kindergartens to college education in environmental protection, from green labeling
to green technology, and from respecting history to restoring legacy. Thanks to this
societal green campaign, the Chinese people have formed a healthy lifestyle that
recognizes simplicity, moderation, green and low-carbon mode, and environmental
protection, fostered an atmosphere where every citizen contributes to ecological
civilization, and turns the ecological consensus into a code of conduct observed by
all.
2. Ecological civilization is a new institutional system
It means a new legal system. Ecological progress has been put on a law-based and
institutional track across the board. To date, China has implemented 49 important laws and released 49 administrative regulations on environmental protection,
as well as 90 departmental rules related with pollution control, ecological protection and nuclear radiation, 33 judicial documents on environmental protection, and
2,019 national environmental standards currently. By revising and enacting the most
rigorous Law on Environmental Protection in history, and formulating such regulations as Methods of Evaluation and Assessment on Ecological Progress, Methods of
Holding Party and Government Leaders Accountable for Ecological and Environmental Damages (Trial) and Pilot Plan for Conducting Off -office Audit of Leaders
on Natural Resource Assets, the country has established both materially and procedurally the compensation system and life-long accountability system for environmental damages. As a result, ecological progress becomes an ideal testing field
for the rule of law. For instance, the environmental protection department tested and
launched China’s first method of public participation in environmental protection and
the first regulation on environmental information disclosure, held the first hearing
on environmental impact assessment, and lodged the first public interest litigation
concerning environment. These efforts are aimed to not only fundamentally solve
the chronic problem that the cost of breaking environmental law is too low while
obeying it too high, but also keep integrating China’s law-based governance with
green development from the perspective of national construction.
It means a new policy system. A package of effective economic policies has been
formed for ecological progress. As an important part of macro-economic policies,
environmental-economic policies, following market economy rules, are regulating
or affecting the behaviors of market entities by means of price, tax, finance, credit,
charge and insurance, so as to coordinate economic development with environmental
protection. Based on different targets, there are policies on pollution control like
charges for pollutant discharge, those on environmental infrastructure like charges for
sewage and garbage disposal, and those on environmental protection like ecological
Y. Pan
estimated that if Chinese people copy the modern American lifestyle, we would need
another 1.2 earths to meet the resource and energy demand. The capitalist industrial
society isn’t an ideal society for the Chinese people, who, enlightened by ecological
civilization, has continuously intensified the public awareness of green development
through different channels – from forest parks to religious venues, from street sculptures to toilet revolution, from public entertainment to community sanitation, from
kindergartens to college education in environmental protection, from green labeling
to green technology, and from respecting history to restoring legacy. Thanks to this
societal green campaign, the Chinese people have formed a healthy lifestyle that
recognizes simplicity, moderation, green and low-carbon mode, and environmental
protection, fostered an atmosphere where every citizen contributes to ecological
civilization, and turns the ecological consensus into a code of conduct observed by
all.
2. Ecological civilization is a new institutional system
It means a new legal system. Ecological progress has been put on a law-based and
institutional track across the board. To date, China has implemented 49 important laws and released 49 administrative regulations on environmental protection,
as well as 90 departmental rules related with pollution control, ecological protection and nuclear radiation, 33 judicial documents on environmental protection, and
2,019 national environmental standards currently. By revising and enacting the most
rigorous Law on Environmental Protection in history, and formulating such regulations as Methods of Evaluation and Assessment on Ecological Progress, Methods of
Holding Party and Government Leaders Accountable for Ecological and Environmental Damages (Trial) and Pilot Plan for Conducting Off -office Audit of Leaders
on Natural Resource Assets, the country has established both materially and procedurally the compensation system and life-long accountability system for environmental damages. As a result, ecological progress becomes an ideal testing field
for the rule of law. For instance, the environmental protection department tested and
launched China’s first method of public participation in environmental protection and
the first regulation on environmental information disclosure, held the first hearing
on environmental impact assessment, and lodged the first public interest litigation
concerning environment. These efforts are aimed to not only fundamentally solve
the chronic problem that the cost of breaking environmental law is too low while
obeying it too high, but also keep integrating China’s law-based governance with
green development from the perspective of national construction.
It means a new policy system. A package of effective economic policies has been
formed for ecological progress. As an important part of macro-economic policies,
environmental-economic policies, following market economy rules, are regulating
or affecting the behaviors of market entities by means of price, tax, finance, credit,
charge and insurance, so as to coordinate economic development with environmental
protection. Based on different targets, there are policies on pollution control like
charges for pollutant discharge, those on environmental infrastructure like charges for
sewage and garbage disposal, and those on environmental protection like ecological