The fourth volume of the China Environment Yearbook is essential for studying issues affecting China’s environment from the viewpoint of civil society, policy, and analysis in 2008, including: the Sichuan Earthquake, a worsening global economic crisis, and public interest litigation.

This volume of The China Legal Development Yearbook is the fourth in a series of annual reports written by leading Chinese law and legal policy scholars and judges to appear in English translation. It is edited by scholars at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This 2009 yearbook reviews major legal developments in 2008, including law reform priorities, major legal policy debates and newly enacted legislation. It also provides reports on food safety, penal law, tax law, earthquake legislation, credit card regulation, procuratorate system reform, medical reform, legal education, and disclosure under the law. This yearbook provides valuable insight into contemporary debates in China about the substance, direction and priorities of legal reform.

This volume of The China Environment Yearbook is the second in a series of annual records written, commissioned, produced, and edited by Friends of Nature, China’s premier environmental citizens’ group. It is the signature annual research publication of China’s non-governmental environmental sector.

In this book, Katrin Buchmann offers a fascinating and insightful account of the efforts of several European embassies to create alliances in the United States and in China to support the UN climate negotiations leading up to COP15.

China’s environmental problems and ecological crises are still considerable. Pollution and ecological deterioration are becoming worse, while the booming economy and rising population are adding to the pressure. Will the PRC be able to avoid the traditional route of industrialization and embark on the path of sustainable development? Friends of Nature is China’s first environmental NGO, and their first environmental yearbook deals with the year 2005, the year of the Songhua River toxic spill crisis, the bird flu attacks, but also of a number of governmental and local initiatives to begin to tackle the increasing pressure on the environment. Here are the voices of experts and witnesses from the PRC itself describing and commenting upon the environment and protection measures in China in 2005, from the public perspective.

With the annual publication of the China Environment Yearbook by Friends of Nature, China’s environmental situation is revealed through the eyes of civil society. In this fifth volume, key issues affecting China’s environment in the year 2009 are explored through five main themes: Public Policy, Litigation, Pollution and Health, Consumption, and Ecological Protection.

Drawing on first hand interview data with experts and government officials, Olivia Gippner develops a new analytical framework to explore the vested interests and policy debates surrounding Chinese climate policy-making.