CDB Reports

Environment

Green Future: China’s “first environmental project fundraising platform”

According to the Beijing Daily, on June 5th China’s “first public fundraising platform for environmental projects” – named “Green Future” (绿色未来) – went online. The China Environmental Culture Promotion Association (CECPA) and Shanghai GM are co-sponsoring the platform. Green Future…

Sina Weibo’s 2015 “Attitudes Towards Environmental Issues” online survey

Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblogging service often compared to Twitter, recently published the results of a March 2015 online survey about Chinese attitudes towards environmental issues (中国网民环保态度调查). The survey began with initiatives mobilizing Weibo users to participate in small environmental …

Zhou Qiang: threshold for environmental lawsuits will be lowered

The Supreme Court encourages environmental organizations to bring public interest lawsuits, and it will lower the threshold for such lawsuits, Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of China’s highest court, said during the 2015 Boao Forum for Asia. Zhou also…

Environmental lawsuits still too expensive

Although the new environmental protection law, enacted on January 1, 2015, gave more than 700 environmental protection organizations the authorization to bring environmental lawsuits, only two organizations – the All-China Environment Federation(ACEF) and Friends of Nature(FON) – have thus far…

Law on eco-taxes gains momentum

Taxation on pollution and environmental damage – so-called “eco-taxes” – became a hot topic again during this year’s Liang Hui (annual meeting of the country’s legislature from March 5 to 15) when Jia Kang, former director of the Research Institute…

EU-China NGO twinning programs agree to merge

Robert Bosch Stiftung and Stiftung Mercator have agreed to combine their existing exchange programs into a joint initiative. The joint initiative will be named “EU-China NGO Twinning Program”. It will comprise the Stiftung Asienhaus “EU-China NGO Twinning Program”, which is…

More than 700 CSOs now able to bring environmental lawsuits

The recent Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Certain Issues Concerning the Application of laws in Environmental Civil Public Interest Cases (最高人民法院关于审理环境民事公益诉讼案件适用法律若干问题的解释), made public on Jan. 6, 2015, stipulates that social organizations, private non-enterprise units, foundations, and other organizations…

Public interest lawsuits: spring for environmental protection

The Supreme People's Court published an «Interpretation of issues related to the laws applicable to an environmental civil litigation case hearing» (hereafter: «Interpretation»). The Interpretation allows more public interest organizations to participate in environmental civil litigations.

Two NGOs initiate first environment public interest lawsuit

On January 1st 2015, two NGOs received a notice from the Nanping city intermediate people's court stating it had accepted to file their lawsuit. This is the first occurence of a public interest lawsuit being filed since the new "Environment Protection Law" has been enforced.