Title: Climate Change and the Individual: A Perspective of China
Abstract: As a state where the ruling communist party operates in a central planning mode, the policies of the ruling party and central government exert a great influence on national affairs with a long historical tradition in China, which can be even more obviously illustrated in the issues of climate change. But on the other hand, there is still no specific national climate legislation in China, which is currently the main barrier and challenge in China’s legal system for an individual to bring a case against the government for allegedly not complying with its international climate change obligations. As a concept developing gradually in various countries in recent years, ‘Climate litigation’ is not strictly a term in environmental judicial practice in China. In the long run, to improve the development of climate litigation, China is required to design a climate litigation system within the framework of Environmental Public Litigation, which is tailored specifically to climate change-related cases.