Abstract: The promulgation of the Energy Law in China has enabled the dual control system for carbon emissions to obtain explicit legal recognition. The system is an optimization and upgrading of the dual control system for energy consumption, and represents the application of the "total behavior control doctrine" in the field of carbon reduction, undertaking the functions of leading climate change mitigation, shaping the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, and synergizing ecological protection and construction. The current normative system is characterized by a transition from policies to legislative confirmation, principled and framework provisions in national legislation, and multi-dimensions and diversification in local legislation, with such deficiencies as vague concepts on dual control of carbon emissions, poor institutional coherence and incompleteness in implementation rules caused by absence of comprehensive legislations on climate change, inadequacy of concepts of and lack of rules related to carbon emission control in energy legislation, and insufficient norms for synergizing pollution reduction and carbon emission reduction in ecological and environmental protection legislation. To improve the legal norms related to the dual control system for carbon emissions, it is necessary to establish, on the basis of clarified concepts, core rules related to carbon emission control in comprehensive legislation on climate change response (carbon neutrality) and to optimize the concepts and rules of carbon emission control in the systems of energy law and ecological and environmental protection law in three dimensions: climate change response (carbon neutrality) legislation, energy legislation, and ecological and environmental protection legislation.
Keywords: Energy Law; "dual carbon" goals; dual control of carbon emissions; climate change; Code of Ecological Environment
Author:Yue Xiaohua, associate research fellow, CASS Institute of Law; associate professor, Law School of the University of CASS;
Source:4 (2025) Journal of China University of Petroleum(Edition of Social Sciences)..
