Fudan University's wisdom contributes to the new environmental code

China's Ecological and Environmental Code officially took effect on Saturday, which coincided with National Ecology Day. Research teams from Fudan University in Shanghai have made a major contribution to the drafting of the code.

Adopted by China's top legislature in March, the 1,242-article code has five chapters, covering areas including pollution control, ecological protection, and green and low-carbon development. It is aligned with China's pledges to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

Instead of the traditional approach to codification, the code features an innovative strategy of "moderate codification" in its drafting, proposed by the Fudan team. Zhang Zitai, law professor and director of the Center for Environmental Resources and Energy Law at Fudan University, is the first one to put forward the strategy, which was published in a law journal in 2008.

Zhang said that the environmental law sector sees dynamic technical updates, massive regulations and rules, as well as extremely extensive coordination across domains. With the moderate codification strategy, the code can establish principles and provide a value anchor for administrative and judicial bodies as well as society at large. Meanwhile, specific rules can be continuously generated, adapted and updated through governance practices.

"Such an 'open' code can keep pace with the dynamic process of building an ecological civilization. It offers a Chinese solution for global environmental rule of law that balances systematization with governance flexibility," Zhang said.

Behind the code's massive articles are the accumulated efforts of Fudan's interdisciplinary research teams. In addition to Zhang's team, other teams from the university's department of environmental science and engineering also made significant contributions to the drafting.

Wang Xiangrong, professor from the department and director of Center for Urban Eco-Planning and Design at the university, shared that results of their basic research conducted in over 600 cities across the nation have provided solid scientific references for the code and other regulations.