The Improvement Of China’s Climate Change Litigation System

Climate change is already having a serious impact on the natural environment and human society,and the world is facing a growing energy crisis,record concentrations of greenhouse gases and increasingly frequent extreme weather events.In the face of pressing climate change issues,the legal profession needs to seek effective institutions to address this emerging environmental issue.In recent years,climate change litigation has been continuously brought up around the world,and climate justice has become an important way to address climate change.In judicial practice,China has seen climate change litigation in a broad sense,the most typical of which is air pollution public interest litigation.Although air pollution public interest litigation does not directly raise issues related to climate change,its outcome has a positive impact on climate change mitigation and adaptation.At present,China does not have special legislation to address climate change,nor does it have a perfect legal system,and there are practical difficulties in judicial practice,such as ambiguous qualifications for plaintiffs and difficulty in proving causal relationships.In order to fulfill its international obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,China has conducted a special study on legislation in the field of climate change,issued a series of documents and policies,and put a special climate change law on the agenda.Extraterritorially,the United States and the European Union are the leaders and promoters of climate change litigation,and their climate change litigation accounts for a very high proportion of the world,and has formed relatively complete theoretical experience and practical results.Existing climate change lawsuits in the United States are often brought under laws such as the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.The EU and its member states are mainly based on the European Convention on Human Rights,as well as the civil codes and constitutions of member states.In the absence of climate legislation in China and the public interest nature of climate change litigation is consistent with the existing public interest litigation system,countermeasures can be proposed for climate change litigation in China from the perspective of improving the public interest litigation system.In terms of climate change administrative public interest litigation,climate change issues can be resolved by clarifying the principles of jurisdiction,review methods and form of judgments.In terms of civil public interest litigation on climate change,climate change litigation can be brought by clarifying the scope of the case,identifying innovative causal relationships,and determining remedies.