2026-3-17Ecological Environment Code of the People's Republic of China
(Passed at the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress on March 12, 2026)
catalogue
Part 1 General Provisions
Chapter 1 Basic Provisions
Chapter 2 Supervision and Management
Section 1 Supervision and Management System and Working Mechanism
Section 2 Supervision and Management System
Chapter 3 Planning and Ecological Environment Zoning Control
Chapter 4 Standards and Monitoring
Chapter 5 Ecological Environment Impact Assessment
Section 1 General Provisions
Section 2 Ecological Environment Impact Assessment of Planning
Section 3 Ecological Environment Impact Assessment of Construction Projects
Chapter 6: Compensation for Ecological Protection
Chapter 7 Response to Sudden Ecological Environment Incidents
Chapter 8 Guarantee Measures
Chapter 9 Information Disclosure and Public Participation
Part 2 Pollution Prevention and Control
General Principles of the First Division
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Chapter 2 Management of Pollutant Discharge Permits
Part 2: Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution
Chapter 3 General Provisions
Chapter 4 Measures for Prevention and Control of Air Pollution
Section 1 Prevention and Control of Air Pollution from Coal and Other Energy Sources
Section 2 Prevention and Control of Industrial Air Pollution
Section 3 Prevention and Control of Air Pollution from Motor Vehicles, Boats, and Other Vehicles
Section 4 Prevention and Control of Dust and Air Pollution
Section 5: Prevention and Control of Agricultural and Other Air Pollution
Chapter 5 Joint Prevention and Control of Air Pollution in Key Areas
Chapter 6: Response to Heavy Pollution Weather
Part Three Water Pollution Prevention and Control
Chapter 7 General Provisions
Chapter 8 Water Pollution Prevention and Control Measures
Section 1 Prevention and Control of Industrial Water Pollution
Section 2 Prevention and Control of Urban Water Pollution
Section 3: Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in Agriculture and Rural Areas
Section 4 Prevention and Control of Ship Water Pollution
Chapter 9: Protection of Drinking Water Sources and Other Special Water Bodies
Chapter 10: Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in Key River Basins
Part Four: Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution
Chapter 11 General Provisions
Chapter 12: Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution from Land based Pollutants
Chapter 13: Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution in Engineering Construction Projects
Chapter 14: Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution Caused by Waste Dumping
Chapter 15: Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution from Ships
Part 5 Soil Pollution Prevention and Control
Chapter 16 General Provisions
Chapter 17 Soil Pollution Prevention
Chapter 18 Soil Pollution Risk Control and Remediation
Section 1 Overall Requirements
Section 2 Risk Control and Remediation of Soil Pollution in Agricultural Land
Section 3: Risk Control and Remediation of Soil Pollution on Construction Land
Part 6 Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control
Chapter 19 General Provisions
Chapter 20 Prevention and Control of Industrial Solid Waste Pollution
Chapter 21 Prevention and Control of Domestic Waste Pollution
Chapter 22: Prevention and Control of Pollution from Construction Waste, Agricultural Solid Waste, and Other Sources
Chapter 23 Prevention and Control of Hazardous Waste Pollution
Chapter Seven: Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution
Chapter 24 General Provisions
Chapter 25 Prevention and Control of Industrial Noise Pollution
Chapter 26 Prevention and Control of Construction Noise Pollution
Chapter 27 Prevention and Control of Transportation Noise Pollution
Chapter 28 Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution in Social Life
Part 8 Prevention and Control of Radioactive Pollution
Chapter 29 General Provisions
Chapter 30 Prevention and Control of Radioactive Pollution from Nuclear Facilities
Chapter 31: Prevention and Control of Radioactive Pollution from Nuclear Technology Utilization
Chapter 32: Prevention and Control of Radioactive Pollution in the Development and Utilization of Uranium (Thorium) Mines and Associated Radioactive Mines
Chapter 33 Prevention and Control of Radioactive Waste Pollution
Title 9 Chemical Substance Pollution Risk Control, Electromagnetic Radiation and Light Pollution Prevention and Control
Chapter 34 Chemical Substance Pollution Risk Control
Chapter 35 Prevention and Control of Electromagnetic Radiation Pollution
Chapter 36 Prevention and Control of Light Pollution
Part III Ecological Protection
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Chapter 2: Ecosystem Protection
Section 1 Forest
Section 2 Grassland
Section 3 Wetland
Section 4: Oceans and Islands
Section 5 Rivers and Lakes
Section 6 Desert
Chapter 3: Protection and Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resources
Section 1 Land Resources
Section 2 Mineral Resources
The third water-saving resource
Section 4 Fishery Resources
Section 5 Other Natural Resources
Chapter 4 Species Protection
Section 1 Wildlife Protection
Section 2: Protection of Wild Plants
Section 3 Prevention and Control of Invasive Alien Species
Chapter 5 Protection of Important Geographic Units
Section 1 Nature Reserve
Section 2: Important river basins and regions such as the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Qinghai Tibet Plateau
Chapter 6 Prevention and Control of Ecological Degradation
Section 1 Soil and Water Conservation
Section 2: Sand Prevention and Control
Chapter 7 Ecological Restoration
Part Four Green and Low Carbon Development
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Chapter 2 Development of Circular Economy
Section 1 General Provisions
Section 2 Clean Production
Section 3 Waste Recycling and Utilization
Section 4 Green Consumption
Chapter 3 Energy Conservation and Green Low Carbon Transformation
Section 1 General Provisions
Section 2 Energy Conservation
Section 3 Energy Green and Low Carbon Transformation
Chapter 4: Coping with Climate Change
Section 1 General Provisions
Section 2: Mitigating Climate Change and Achieving Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality
Section 3 Adaptation to Climate Change
Section 4 International Cooperation
Part V Legal Responsibilities and Supplementary Provisions
Chapter 1 General Principles of Legal Liability
Section 1 General Provisions
Section 2 Responsibility Subject
Section 3: Accountability Investigation
Chapter 2 Legal Liability Division
Section 1 Violation of Ecological Environment Monitoring and Management Regulations
Section 2 Violation of Ecological Environment Impact Assessment Management Regulations
Section 3 Violation of Pollutant Discharge Permit Management Regulations
Section 4 Violation of Air Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations
Section 5 Violation of Water Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations
Section 6 Violation of Marine Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations
Section 7 Violation of Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations
Section 8 Violation of Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations
Section 9 Violation of Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations
Section 10 Violation of Regulations on Prevention and Control of Radioactive Pollution
Section 11 Violation of Chemical Substance Pollution Risk Control, Electromagnetic Radiation and Light Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations
Section 12 Violation of Ecological Protection Management Regulations
Section 13 Violation of Green and Low Carbon Development Management Regulations
Section 14 Other Illegal Acts
Chapter 3 Supplementary Provisions
Part 1 General Provisions
Chapter 1 Basic Provisions
Article 1: In order to protect the ecological environment, prevent and control pollution and other public hazards, safeguard public health and ecological environment rights, maintain ecological security, promote green and low-carbon development, build ecological civilization, comprehensively promote the construction of a beautiful China, accelerate the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and achieve the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, this Law is formulated in accordance with the Constitution.
Article 2: The ecological environment referred to in this Law refers to various natural and artificially transformed natural spaces, natural factors, and their interrelationships and interactions that affect human survival and development as well as ecosystem functions, including atmosphere, water, ocean, land, mineral deposits, forests, mountains, grasslands, wetlands, glaciers, plateaus, deserts, wildlife, natural relics, cultural relics, nature reserves, cities, and rural areas.
Article 3 This Law shall apply to activities related to pollution prevention and control, ecological protection, green and low-carbon development, and other ecological environment protection within the territory of the People's Republic of China and other sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China.
If environmental pollution or ecological damage is caused or may be caused outside the territory of the People's Republic of China and other sea areas under its jurisdiction, relevant provisions of this Law shall apply.
Article 5: Saving resources and protecting the ecological environment are the basic national policies of the country.
The country adopts economic and technological policies and measures that are conducive to protecting the ecological environment and promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. It coordinates industrial restructuring, pollution prevention and control, ecological protection, and response to climate change, and promotes carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth in a coordinated manner. It also promotes ecological priority, conservation and intensive, and green low-carbon development.
Article 6: Ecological environment protection shall adhere to the principles of prevention first, systematic governance, ecological priority, green development, public participation, and responsibility for damages.
Article 7: All units and individuals have the obligation to protect the ecological environment.
Article 8: People's governments at all levels shall strengthen the work of ecological environment protection, correctly handle the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, take effective measures according to the goals and governance tasks of ecological environment protection, and improve the quality of ecological environment.
Local governments at all levels shall be responsible for the ecological environment protection work and ecological environment quality of their administrative regions and the sea areas they manage.
Article 9 Enterprises, institutions, and other producers and operators shall take effective measures to prevent and reduce environmental pollution and ecological damage, conserve and intensively utilize resources, control greenhouse gas emissions, fulfill their obligations for green and low-carbon development, and bear legal responsibility for the damages caused.
Article 10 Citizens shall enhance their awareness of ecological environment protection, adopt a simple, moderate, green and low-carbon lifestyle, consciously fulfill their obligations of ecological environment protection, comply with ecological environment laws and regulations, and cooperate in implementing ecological environment protection measures.
Article 11: The state supports the research, development, and application of ecological and environmental science and technology, strengthens scientific and technological support and talent cultivation for ecological and environmental protection work, promotes the application of information technology, digital technology, artificial intelligence technology, etc. while ensuring safety, and improves the scientific and technological level of ecological and environmental protection.
Article 12: People's governments at all levels and their relevant departments shall strengthen the publicity and popularization of ecological environment protection, carry out ecological environment legal publicity and education, promote ecological culture, and enhance the public's awareness of ecological environment protection and legal literacy.
Education administrative departments and schools should incorporate ecological environment laws, regulations, and knowledge of ecological environment protection into school education content, cultivate students' awareness of ecological environment protection and legal literacy.
News media should carry out publicity on ecological environment laws and regulations and knowledge of ecological environment protection, and conduct public opinion supervision on ecological environment violations.
The state encourages grassroots autonomous organizations, social organizations, and ecological environment protection volunteers to promote ecological environment laws, regulations, and knowledge of ecological environment protection, creating a good atmosphere for protecting the ecological environment and building ecological civilization.
Article 13: Units and individuals who have made significant achievements in ecological environment protection shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with national regulations.
Article 14: The state shall strengthen international cooperation in the field of ecological environment, fulfill the obligations stipulated in international treaties concluded or participated in by the People's Republic of China, support international exchanges and cooperation in ecological environment protection, actively participate in the research and formulation of international rules on ecological environment, actively interpret the concept, propositions and successful practices of ecological environment rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and promote the construction of a fair, reasonable, cooperative and win-win global environmental governance system.
Article 15: August 15th of each year is National Ecology Day. The state carries out ecological civilization propaganda and education activities through various forms.
Chapter 2 Supervision and Management
Section 1 Supervision and Management System and Working Mechanism
Article 16: People's governments at or above the county level shall organize, coordinate, and supervise relevant departments to fulfill their responsibilities for ecological environment protection supervision and management in accordance with the law.
Article 17: The competent department of ecological environment under the State Council shall, within its scope of responsibilities, implement unified supervision and management of the national ecological environment protection work, formulate unified policies, planning standards, conduct unified monitoring and evaluation, supervise and enforce laws, and conduct unified inspection and accountability. The ecological environment department of the local people's government shall implement unified supervision and management of the ecological environment protection work within its scope of responsibilities.
The competent department of natural resources under the State Council shall supervise and manage the development, utilization, and protection of natural resources throughout the country within its scope of responsibilities. According to the authorization of the State Council, it shall uniformly fulfill the responsibilities of owners of all natural resource assets owned by the whole nation, and uniformly fulfill all responsibilities of land use control and ecological protection and restoration. The natural resources department of the local people's government shall supervise and manage the development, utilization, and protection of natural resources, as well as the development and protection of national land and space within its scope of responsibilities.
The relevant departments of development and reform, industry and information technology, housing and urban-rural development, transportation, water administration, agriculture and rural areas, forestry and grassland of the people's governments at or above the county level, as well as the ecological environment protection departments of the military, shall supervise and manage the work of ecological environment protection within their respective responsibilities.
Article 18: The state shall establish and improve the system of ecological environment protection responsibility list, clarify the ecological environment protection supervision and management responsibilities of relevant departments of the State Council and local people's governments.
Article 19: Provinces, cities, counties, and townships shall establish and improve the river and lake chief system and forest chief system in accordance with the law. River and lake governors at all levels shall be responsible for the management and protection of Rivers and Lakes in their respective administrative regions; Forest chiefs at all levels are responsible for the protection and development of forest and grassland resources in their respective administrative regions.
Article 20: Local people's governments at or above the county level shall establish a coordination and linkage mechanism for ecological environment protection work according to actual needs, strengthen departmental coordination and cooperation, and promote ecological environment protection work in their administrative regions.
Article 21: The state shall establish and improve a coordination mechanism for joint protection of the ecological environment in key areas, river basins, and sea areas across administrative regions, and implement unified planning, standards, monitoring, and protection measures.
Ecological environment protection across administrative regions other than those specified in the preceding paragraph shall be coordinated and resolved by the higher-level people's government, or by the relevant local people's government through consultation.
Article 22: The state shall improve the coordination mechanism for ecological security work, take effective measures to enhance the capabilities of ecological security risk assessment, monitoring and early warning, emergency response and disposal, form a comprehensive and efficient ecological security protection system, and coordinate the promotion of ecological security work.
Article 23: The state shall establish and improve mechanisms for sharing ecological environment information, enhance information sharing capabilities, and strengthen ecological environment information sharing.
County level and above people's governments shall promote the construction of ecological environment information sharing platforms, and relevant departments shall timely organize the upload of ecological environment information and dynamically update it.
Section 2 Supervision and Management System
Article 24: The state adheres to regional, differentiated, and precise control, implements an ecological environment supervision and management system that integrates aboveground and underground, land and sea, and regional linkage, and strengthens the coordination and connection of planning, standards, monitoring, and other supervision and management systems.
Article 25: People's governments at all levels and their relevant departments shall strengthen the construction of ecological environment protection supervision and management capabilities, and improve the level of informationization, digitization, and intelligence in ecological environment protection supervision and management.
Article 26: Relevant departments of the State Council and local people's governments at or above the county level shall fully consider the impact on the ecological environment when formulating economic and technological policies and measures, and listen to the opinions of relevant parties and experts.
Article 27: The state implements the responsibility system and assessment system for ecological environment protection goals, and includes the completion of ecological environment protection goals in the assessment and evaluation content. The assessment and evaluation work should enhance pertinence and effectiveness, and avoid formalism. The assessment results should be made public to the society.
Article 28: The state shall establish and improve the ecological environment protection inspection system, and conduct comprehensive inspections on relevant parties fulfilling their responsibilities for ecological civilization construction and ecological environment protection. The ecological environment protection inspection implements a two-level inspection system of central and provincial, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the central government.
Article 29: The inspected object shall consciously accept the ecological environment protection inspection and actively cooperate with the inspection work.
After receiving feedback from the ecological environment protection inspection, the inspected object shall organize the preparation of an inspection and rectification plan, and clarify the implementation subject, rectification objectives, rectification time limit, key measures, and acceptance units for each item of the inspection feedback problems.
Important ecological and environmental problems and their dereliction of duty discovered during ecological and environmental protection inspections and rectification shall be held accountable in accordance with national regulations.
Article 30: People's governments at or above the county level shall report the ecological environment status and the completion of ecological environment protection goals to the people's congress or its standing committee at the same level every year. They shall promptly report major ecological environment incidents to the standing committee of the people's congress at the same level and accept supervision in accordance with the law.
Article 31: The state strengthens the construction of judicial protection for ecological environment.
The people's courts should strengthen the ecological environment trial work and promote the construction of a specialized ecological environment trial mechanism.
The People's Procuratorate should strengthen the ecological environment procuratorial work and enhance procuratorial supervision.
Article 32: The state shall improve the system of compensation for ecological environment damage and public interest litigation for ecological environment, and safeguard the interests of the state and society.
Article 33: Administrative organs, supervisory organs, judicial organs, and procuratorial organs shall strengthen coordination and cooperation, establish and improve mechanisms for case transfer, information sharing, etc., and pursue legal responsibility for illegal acts such as environmental pollution and ecological damage in accordance with the law.
Article 34: The state shall conduct audits on the departure of natural resource assets, and audit the performance of leading cadres in managing natural resource assets and protecting the ecological environment.
Article 35: The state strengthens the protection and restoration of ecology, adheres to the integrated protection and restoration of mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasses, and sands, and implements a systematic governance that focuses on natural restoration and combines natural restoration with artificial restoration.
Article 36: The state shall improve the system of main functional zones and optimize the spatial development pattern of the national territory based on the different positioning of urbanized areas, main agricultural product producing areas, and key ecological functional zones.
Article 37: The state shall improve the system of total resource management and comprehensive conservation, avoid resource waste, and improve resource utilization efficiency.
Article 38: The state shall improve the property rights system and management system of natural resource assets, perfect the agency mechanism for the ownership of natural resource assets owned by the whole people, and promote the compensated use of natural resources.
Article 39: The state shall improve the mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products, form diversified paths for realizing the value of ecological products, and promote ecological industrialization and industrial ecologicalization.
Article 40: The development and utilization of natural resources shall be carried out in a rational, economical, intensive, and efficient manner, to prevent environmental pollution, ecological damage, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Relevant plans for ecological environment protection shall be formulated and implemented in accordance with the law.
Article 41: The state shall coordinate the management of water resources, water environment, and water ecology, and strengthen the protection of water ecological environment.
The country implements a rigid constraint system on water resources, adheres to the principle of determining cities, land, people, and production based on water, promotes the scientific and rational layout of population and cities, constructs a modern industrial system that is compatible with the carrying capacity of water resources, and ensures national water security.
Article 42: The state shall strengthen the protection of biodiversity, establish and improve coordination mechanisms for biodiversity conservation work, as well as systems for biodiversity investigation, monitoring, evaluation, and protection, and reasonably layout and construct a spatial system for biodiversity conservation.
Effective measures should be taken to prevent the destruction of biodiversity when introducing alien species and researching, developing, and utilizing biotechnology.
Article 43: The state shall establish a natural protected area system with national parks as the main body, nature reserves as the foundation, and various types of natural parks as supplements, to ensure the systematic protection of important ecosystems, natural relics, natural landscapes, and biodiversity.
Article 44 The State promotes the construction of regional ecological barriers such as the Qinghai Tibet Plateau ecological barrier area, the Yangtze River key ecological zone, the Yellow River key ecological zone, the Northeast Forest Belt, the northern sand belt, the southern hilly and mountainous areas, and the coastal zone, and strengthens the protection of the ecological environment of important Rivers and Lakes such as the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Huai River, the Hai River, the the Pearl River, the Songhua River, the Liao River, the Dongting Lake, the Poyang Lake, the the Taihu Lake Lake, the Hongze Lake, and the Chaohu Lake.
Article 45: The competent ecological environment department of the State Council, in accordance with the conditions and quality improvement requirements of the marine ecological environment, shall, in conjunction with relevant departments of the State Council such as development and reform, natural resources, housing and urban-rural development, transportation, water administration, fisheries and fishery administration, forestry and grassland, and maritime police agencies, delineate key sea areas and their control areas for national ecological environment governance, formulate comprehensive governance action plans, and implement them after approval by the State Council.
Local people's governments at or above the city level in coastal areas shall formulate implementation plans for managing sea areas based on the comprehensive governance action plan, adopt special control measures according to local conditions, carry out comprehensive governance, and jointly promote the governance of key sea areas and the construction of beautiful bays.
Article 46: People's governments at all levels shall strengthen the protection of the agricultural ecological environment, promote the application of new technologies for agricultural ecological environment protection, strengthen monitoring and early warning of agricultural pollution sources, coordinate relevant departments to take effective measures to prevent and control soil pollution, land desertification, acidification, salinization, impoverishment, rocky desertification, land subsidence, as well as ecological imbalances such as vegetation destruction, soil erosion, eutrophication of water bodies, water source depletion, extinction of seed sources, and invasion of alien species, and promote comprehensive prevention and control of plant diseases and pests.
Governments at all levels should improve the level of public services for rural ecological environment protection, promote comprehensive improvement of rural ecological environment, and continuously improve the living environment in rural areas.
Article 47 Urban and rural construction shall be combined with the local natural ecological environment characteristics, protect vegetation, water bodies and natural landscapes, cultural relics, ancient and famous trees, etc., and strengthen the construction and management of urban gardens and green spaces.
Article 48: The state shall establish and improve a system for monitoring, investigating, and assessing ecological environment and health risks; Encourage and organize research on the impact of ecological environment quality on public health, and take effective measures to prevent and control diseases related to environmental pollution, ecological damage, etc.
Article 49: The state implements a system of elimination for technologies, processes, equipment, materials, and products that seriously pollute the environment and damage the ecology.
The development and reform departments of the State Council, together with relevant departments, shall determine the deadline for phasing out technologies, processes, equipment, materials, and products that seriously pollute the environment and damage the ecology, and include them in the national comprehensive industrial policy catalog.
Producers, importers, sellers, and users shall cease the production, import, sale, and use of equipment, materials, and products listed in the catalog specified in the preceding paragraph within the prescribed period. The adopters of technologies and processes shall cease to use the technologies and processes listed in the catalog specified in the preceding paragraph within the prescribed period.
The eliminated equipment, materials, and products shall not be transferred to others for use.
Article 50: The departments of the State Council responsible for ecological environment protection supervision and management, as well as the people's governments of key regions, river basins, and sea areas in relevant provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, may organize relevant departments to carry out joint law enforcement, cross administrative region, river basin, and sea area law enforcement, and cross law
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