An international seminar on the judicial response to climate change, jointly hosted by the Supreme People's Court (SPC), the Asian Development Bank and ClientEarth, was held both online and offline in Beijing on July 6. Yang Linping, vice-president of the SPC, attended the seminar and delivered a keynote speech.

Yang said that the courts in China have established a trial system specifically for environmental resources, improved applicable rules concerning laws on environmental protection, and provided judicial services and guarantees for adapting to and mitigating climate change and building of a beautiful China where humanity and nature coexist harmoniously.

She said that Chinese courts have adopted the most stringent system and the strictest rule of law to protect the environment, by giving full play to trial functions and improving the regulation system of climate change responses. They are also responding to extensive concerns on climate change with diversified judicial response measures and focusing on building a professionalized judicial governance system to enhance the judicial capacity on climate change response.

President of the Sichuan High People's Court Wang Shujiang and judges from other local courts, as well as scholars and officials from related departments, attended the seminar. International attendees included judges from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Senegal, and the United Kingdom, representatives from the UN Environment Programme, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and scholars from Imperial College London, Columbia University in the United States and the National University of Singapore.