China concludes 232,000 first-instance environment, resources cases in 2023

BEIJING -- Courts across China handled around 259,000 first-instance cases concerning the environment and resources, and concluded 232,000 such cases in 2023, according to the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Wednesday.

The number of environmental infringement cases in China continued to decline in 2023. However, there was still an uneven regional distribution of these cases, with water pollution and noise pollution cases ranking top in terms of numbers, said a report released by the SPC on the same day.

In 2023, there was an increase in the number of environmental administrative cases along with a record low in the number of environmental criminal cases, the report revealed.

The number of environment and resources tribunals rose by 15.95 percent from the previous year, according to the report.

In addition, the SPC on Wednesday released 10 typical cases involving the environment and resources. These cases encompass fields such as environmental pollution prevention and control, the rational exploitation and utilization of resources, biological diversity protection, and peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality.