Environmental governance & the dual-carbon goals
China's environmental governance architecture and the dual-carbon goals (peak by 2030, neutrality by 2060): policy, institutions, and exam framing for the Guokao.
The doctrinal arc
China's environmental governance evolved from end-of-pipe pollution control into a constitutional and ideological commitment. The decisive doctrinal turn is “Ecological Civilization” (生态文明), first elevated at the 17th Party Congress (2007), made a “strategic priority” at the 18th Congress (2012) as part of the “Five-Sphere Integrated Plan” (五位一体), and written into the CPC Constitution (2012) and the PRC Constitution by the 2018 amendment (Preamble). Its theoretical core is Xi Jinping’s formulation “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” (绿水青山就是金山银山), articulated at Anji, Zhejiang in August 2005 and now styled “Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.”
The legislative and institutional spine
The Environmental Protection Law, originally 1989, was comprehensively revised in 2014 (effective 1 January 2015) — nicknamed the “toughest in history” for introducing daily-accumulating fines (按日计罚), administrative detention for polluters, and public-interest litigation rights for qualified NGOs. Sectoral statutes followed: the Air Pollution Prevention Law (revised 2015), the Soil Pollution Prevention Law (2018, effective 2019), the Yangtze River Protection Law (2020, effective 2021) — China’s first watershed-specific statute — and the Yellow River Protection Law (2022, effective 2023).
Institutionally, the 2018 State Council reform created the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), consolidating climate functions previously held by the NDRC and pollution authority scattered across ministries. The central ecological environmental inspection system (中央生态环保督察), piloted 2015–2016 and rolled out nationally, sends inspection teams to provinces, names-and-shames officials, and feeds the cadre evaluation system — a “green GDP” accountability mechanism reinforced by lifelong accountability for ecological damage (终身追责). The 2013 “Air Ten” (大气十条), 2015 “Water Ten,” and 2016 “Soil Ten” action plans set the quantitative pollution targets that defined the “war on pollution” declared by Premier Li Keqiang in March 2014.
The dual-carbon commitment
The defining contemporary pledge is the “dual-carbon” goal (双碳): President Xi told the UN General Assembly on 22 September 2020 that China would have CO₂ emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 (碳达峰、5碳中和). This was operationalised through the “1+N” policy system: the “1” being the October 2021 CPC Central Committee/State Council Working Guidance for Carbon Dioxide Peaking and Carbon Neutrality, plus the State Council’s 2030 Carbon Peaking Action Plan (October 2021); the “N” being sectoral implementation plans. The national carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) launched trading on 16 July 2021, initially covering the power sector — the world’s largest carbon market by covered emissions. China’s Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (2021) under the Paris Agreement (2015) raised the non-fossil energy share target to around 25% of primary energy by 2030 and pledged to cut carbon intensity by over 65% from 2005 levels.