The Draft Energy Law: a Possible Legal Protocol to Help China Go Green
As the second largest emitter of greenhouse gas in the world after the United States, the PRC is under great pressure and scrutiny from other countries, and has dedicated a great deal of resources and legislation effort in order to lower its emissions. Can the draft Energy Law successfully turn China into an energy-efficient country?
Date:
February 2008
Promulgated: 10 February 2008
Keywords (click to search): [Energy Law] [China Energy Law] [green energy] [environmental law]
By Joanna Law of China Law & Practice
Climate change has become an unavoidable issue, and both developed and developing countries are gearing up to cut down emissions. In December 2007, over 200 top leaders gathered in Bali for the two-week United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference's goal was to come up with a feasible action plan to extend the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period will end by 2020. Though the outcome made no reference to any actual specific cut in the rate of carbon emission, the conference has further raised countries' awareness of how critical the current situation is.
The PRC has been involved in various environmental developments. For example, China was one of the first countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and was also one of the original signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC].
"China has been very active as a developing...
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