Top court lists environmental achievements of last decade

China's top court said it will formulate additional rules on public-interest environmental litigation to help the legal system and promote green development.

"We're planning to make evidence-based rules on environmental cases and judicial interpretations on public-interest environmental litigation, with disclosure of influential cases involving the protection of the Yangtze River," said Yang Linping, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court.

She released the plan at a news conference on Wednesday while giving an overview of the achievements of courts in the handling of public-interest environmental litigation over the past decade.

She said that since 2013, courts have concluded 16,000 cases involving social organizations suing polluters over the protection of public interest or involving prosecutors taking government agencies to task for poor performance on environmental protection.

Yang added that public-interest litigation has covered every aspect of the environment, from air, water, soil, oceans, forests and endangered species to villages.

In all, 2,426 teams or departments specialized in dealing with environmental disputes have also been set up across the country to improve the quality and professionalism of case handling.

In addition, the top court has issued 21 legal interpretations and 15 legal documents concerning environmental protection over the past 10 years, and has also released guidelines to help promote the high-quality development of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, she said.