A draft of the environmental code that national legislators will deliberate during the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress is expected to make China's environmental legislation more systematic, integrated, coordinated, and responsive, according to Lou Qinjian, the session's spokesman, who spoke at a press conference on Wednesday.

The NPC Standing Committee will submit this draft to the session, which is set to open on Thursday, for deliberation.

"The new code will be a hallmark of the rule of law in the new era," Lou emphasized. Currently, building an ecological civilization has been incorporated into the country's constitution and has become the will of the entire Chinese people, he said.

Ecological civilization is a concept China promotes for balanced and sustainable development that features harmonious coexistence between mankind and nature. Under the guidance of the philosophy that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics on ecology and environment and the foundation of institutions for building an ecological civilization have essentially taken shape, the spokesman stated.

However, considering that China has entered the stage of high-quality development featuring accelerated green and low-carbon transition, the country still needs the most stringent systems and the most rigorous rule of law to protect the ecology and environment and promote green development, he continued.

He pointed out that the country's environmental legislation was fragmented in the past, leading to overlaps and poor coordination among different laws, and the ecological and environmental code will help address this problem. The compilation of the code is not a simple collection of laws, nor is it entirely new legislation, Lou stressed. Instead, it involves the systematic integration, revision, and elevation of existing ecological and environmental legal systems, mechanisms, rules, and norms.

The spokesman said a strategy of moderate codification is applied in drafting the new code. The code will integrate existing laws on environmental protection and pollution management. Once it is adopted, these original laws will be superseded, he explained. Existing laws and regulations on river basins, regions, natural resources, biodiversity, as well as the circular economy and energy conservation, will be reflected in the code by incorporating their main principles and key provisions, Lou continued.

As to climate change, the country's targets of realizing peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality, along with green and low-carbon development, the code will only include some general directional rules to "leave space for future development of the relevant legal institutions", he added. Currently, China has no dedicated law on tackling climate change.

"Building an ecological civilization concerns the sustained development of the Chinese nation; the ecological and environmental code will further cement the legal foundation for a modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature," Lou said.