Towards an integrated environmental permit in China: a legal study based on EU regulatory experiences

Different approaches to controlling emissions into the air, water, or soil separately bear the risk of being ineffective to combat the pollution as a whole. In order to combat the hydra-headed ogre of pollution, the legal framework that attempts to implement integrated pollution prevention and control using the permit instrument was adopted in 1996 at the EU level and in 2020 in China. This research examines to what extent the new regulatory design of the emissions permit system in China, considering the EU regulatory experiences towards integration and seen from the perspective of the specific Chinese situation, provides possibilities for or barriers to the implementation of integrated pollution prevention and control. It was found that China’s emissions permit system presents regulatory possibilities for controlling emissions into the air, water, and land in an integrated manner, but some challenges still exist, particularly in view of environmental effectiveness and environmental trade-offs.