BEIJING: China saw a drop in the number of cases involving environmental issues last year thanks to harsh punishments of polluters and the general public’s increasing awareness of the importance of environmental protection, annual work reports from top judicial authorities said.
The reports of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate were submitted to the ongoing second session of the 14th National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, on Friday for review.
Chinese prosecutors accused 3,831 people of polluting the environment in 2023, a decrease of 11.3 percent year-on-year. They also initiated 84,000 public-interest lawsuits to supervise environmental administrations to better perform duties, according to the SPP report.
“We’ve also provided a special report on procuratorial work in environmental protection for the NPC Standing Committee,” Ying Yong, SPP procurator-general, said when delivering a work report at the session.
Also in 2023, Chinese courts adjudicated 232,000 environmental cases, down 5.8 percent year-on-year. Among the cases, more than 5,300 focused on pollution, a decline of 11.5 percent compared to 2022, the SPC work report showed.
“The drop in the figures indicates that the concept of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature has been deeply rooted in everyone’s mind, and judicial measures have also played a role in beautifying the country,” Zhang Jun, president of the SPC, said while delivering a work report to national lawmakers.
Over the past few years, prosecutors and judges across the country have taken various measures to strengthen environmental protection and advance sustainable development. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
