This year, the attention on China's environment has shifted largely to focus on how China is dealing with climate change.  We cannot overstate just how important this has been.  Just a few years ago, climate change was not a significant part of the public debate on environmental issues in China.  Now we see discussion of climate every single day in Chinese media and China's government has made a series of aggressive moves to position the country to develop a lower-carbon economy.

In the run-up to Copenhagen and beyond, one issue that other countries will raise with China is whether its climate and environment policies, no matter how good, are implementable on the ground.  This will affect how willing other countries are to engage in the technology transfer, funding support, and other assistance that China and developing countries have been seeking.  This is why it is so important for China to continue strengthening environmental rule of law and the development of its system of environmental governance.  Stronger environmental governance and rule of law will not only help China limit the harms of environmental pollution, but also help to build the trust and cooperation among nations necessary to conclude a successful international climate agreement.

NRDC has been working on environmental governance and rule of law issues in China since 2005.  As part of this work, last week, we launched a new environmental law training base for judges and lawyers last week in Wuhan, Hubei Province in collaboration with Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and the American Bar Association's China Rule of Law Initiative.  It is the first training center of its kind outside of Beijing.  Lv Zhongmei, director of Zhongnan's Environmental Resources and Law Institute (ERLI), had the following to say: "This training base is an important way to turn environmental law theory into practice, and to make the laws in the books a reality on-the-ground."

The five-day training last week brought together nearly 60 judges (including from China's environmental courts in Guiyang, Yunnan and Wuxi), lawyers and environmental officials to Wuhan to take courses in "interest-based" negotiations.  A key element of the model is "value creation" and looking for ways to "expand the pie" and prevent value from being left on the table.  This could not be more important as China searches for more effective ways to deal with ever-more complex environmental disputes.  And better dispute resolution mechanisms will lead to better environmental enforcement in the long-run.  This will be critical to help China reduce pollution, protect the health of its citizens and combat climate change.

Many thanks to Stephan Sonnenberg and Alonzo Emery, our intrepid trainers from Harvard Law School's Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program.

Visit Greenlaw! See NRDC's bilingual blog dedicated to discussion of China's environmental law, policy and the power of the people at http://www.greenlaw.org.cn (Chinese) and http://www.greenlaw.org.cn/enblog (English).