The Sichuan Higher People's Court issued the Implementation Opinions to provide adjudication guidelines for judicial services to ensure carbon peaking and carbon neutrality

The Sichuan Provincial High People's Court recently issued the "Implementation Opinions on Implementing the New Development Concept and Serving the Work of Ensuring Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Opinions"), which put forward clear work requirements and specific trial guidelines for judicial services to ensure carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

It is reported that the "Implementation Opinions" is the first "double carbon" judicial service guarantee document issued at the provincial court level after the implementation of the Supreme People's Court's "Opinions on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept to Provide Judicial Service Guarantee for Positive and Stable Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality".

Give full play to the function of adjudication, and serve to ensure the green and low-carbon transformation and high-quality development of the economy and society

In the trial of specific cases, how can the courts give full play to their adjudication functions and actively and steadily promote the work of carbon peak and carbon neutrality? The Implementation Opinions put forward relevant adjudication guidelines from the aspects of criminal trials, civil trials, administrative trials, and new types of carbon-related litigation.

Specifically, in terms of criminal trials, we will crack down on air pollutant crimes, third-party environmental data falsification, and crimes that undermine the carbon sequestration capacity of ecosystems. For example, we should actively promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and severely punish the illegal use of chlorofluorocarbons and other substances listed as controlled ozone-depleting substances or the criminal acts of discharging sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides in excess of the standard during the early warning period of heavily polluted weather. Greenwashing", "greenwashing" and "pseudo-green" behavior.

In terms of civil trials, the Implementation Opinions require that the quantifiable, tradable, registrable and deliverable attributes of carbon emission allowances and certified voluntary emission reductions should be accurately grasped, and that disputes arising from the attribution of carbon emission allowances and certified voluntary emission reductions should focus on reviewing the authenticity and legality of allocation, holding, trading, alteration, settlement, cancellation and other acts, and combine the relevant information recorded in the carbon emission allowance registration system and trading system, the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction registration system and trading system, Data and contract agreements are accurately determined in accordance with law. Properly handle disputes arising from the trading, pledging, and mortgage of carbon emission allowances and certified voluntary emission reductions, and maintain the order of carbon market trading。

In terms of administrative adjudication, the competent departments of ecology and environment are supported in exercising their supervision and management responsibilities such as the allocation and settlement of carbon emission allowances, and the verification of greenhouse gas emission reports. Support the competent departments of ecology and environment in carrying out administrative penalties for false reporting, concealment of greenhouse gas emission reports, and refusal to perform greenhouse gas emission reporting obligations on key emitting enterprises in accordance with law.

In addition, we will actively explore ways to use technological transformation funds to offset the responsibility of ecological damage compensation and restoration costs, guide enterprises to carry out green upgrading and transformation of production equipment and technology, support enterprises to carry out green technology innovation, and promote the continuous and significant improvement of ecological environment quality. Properly hear consumer disputes involving product "carbon footprint" and "carbon labeling" in accordance with the law, and encourage green consumption and emission reductions throughout the entire process of product production.

Actively promote the protection and restoration of the ecological environment, and explore the source resolution of carbon-related cases

In order to actively promote the protection and restoration of the ecological environment, the "Implementation Opinions" proposes to explore environmental restoration methods that are conducive to climate change response, and guide the responsible persons for environmental infringement to voluntarily subscribe or order them to purchase certified forestry carbon sinks to replace the restoration of the damaged ecological environment. Pay attention to the restoration situation as a consideration factor in the application of lenient punishments or suspended sentences, increase the extent of application of replanting and reforestation, labor compensation, low-carbon behavior, etc., promote the formation of a closed loop of ecological restoration of "destruction-punishment-restoration-supervision", establish and improve the mechanism of "restorative justice enforcement + socialized comprehensive governance", and promote the timely and effective restoration of forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other ecosystems.

Strengthening the governance of the source of litigation in carbon-related disputes is also an important part of the Implementation Opinions. The "Implementation Opinions" emphasize that it is necessary to strengthen communication with the ecological environment, development and reform, financial supervision, energy and other relevant carbon emission regulatory departments, and promote the formation of a carbon-related coordination mechanism in which environmental justice and administrative law enforcement are connected and coordinated; Relying on the people's courts' one-stop multiple dispute resolution platform and litigation source governance system, explore the source resolution of carbon-related cases, and promote the participation of administrative organs, experts, social organizations and other entities in the resolution of carbon-related disputes through large-scale mediation mechanisms such as entrusted mediation, industry mediation, and people's mediation, so as to form a joint force in environmental governance.

Deepen the reform of environmental justice, and strive to improve the capacity of judicial services to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality

The reporter noted that the "Implementation Opinions" put forward specific work measures for relevant reform and innovation in terms of improving the mechanism of carbon-related trial systems and deepening the reform of specialization.

The "Implementation Opinions" proposes to explore cross-regional centralized jurisdiction over some carbon-related cases in a timely manner, strictly implement the "Provisions of the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court on Improving the Mechanism for Escalating the Jurisdiction of Cases", and apply the escalated jurisdiction to major carbon-related litigation and climate litigation cases that meet the requirements in accordance with the law; establish a guidance system for carbon-related trials to strengthen line guidance, and report the case filing information to the provincial courts layer by level for new types of cases such as carbon-related litigation and climate litigation accepted by intermediate and grassroots courts; Coordination and docking of work in adjudication and enforcement.

In order to further promote the reform of specialization, the "Implementation Opinions" require the establishment and improvement of the trial mechanism for carbon-related cases, deepen the "three plus one" specialized trial methods for civil, criminal, administrative and restorative judicial enforcement of environmental resources, and explore the specialized trial mechanism and adjudication rules for green finance cases, so as to serve and ensure the construction of Chengdu as a carbon neutral service industry hub.

In addition, the courts of the province should increase the research on hot and difficult issues in carbon-related disputes, actively explore judicial plans based on the improvement of natural and ecological environment quality, summarize and improve the special litigation rules for carbon-related disputes in a timely manner, discover, collect and sort out typical cases in a timely manner, and do a good job in case cultivation and rule refinement. It is necessary to focus on promoting new legal relationships, new forms of rights, new illegal situations, and new forms of responsibility in the "dual carbon" work, carry out carbon-related judicial research, and actively promote the transformation and application of achievements.