On September 14,  before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Legal Department of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Developement Foundation has organized an online seminar on Over-packaging  of mooncakes——the case of ShangXinghua Lou in Shanghai. Experts from ecological protection, food and nutrition, consumer protection and law were invited to join the discussion. At the seminar, Ma Yong, Under-Secretary-General of CBCDGF, delivered a speech, the content of which is compiled and shared as follows.

I hope the public interest litigations should guide public values on mooncake over-packaging cases. My suggestions are threefold.

First, public interest litigations should supervise the process of lawsuits. All experts joining us today have important role to play in establishing the environment public litigations system. Both the Civil Procedure Law of the People' Republic of China and Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China have added items of  environment public interest litigations.

The purpose of establishing public interest litigation system is to supervise the process of environment law enforcement.  Many environment pollution events have brought public interest.

After the pollution of Songhuajiang River pollution in 2005, an expert has filed an environment public interest lawsuit. This case has raised public understanding of it.

After this, governments of all levels have established environment court for promoting environment public interest lawsuit. Lawsuits have pushed the law to develop.

In the case of Shanghai Xinghualou Group mooncake over-packaging, many researches have been made. But the results were not satisfying. In the market, mooncake packaging can not be addressed easily. Supervision of environment public interest lawsuit should be maximized.

Second, nip pollution in the bud. The 66 item in the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste suggested that design should prioritize environment. Shanghai Xinghualou Group does not follow the law. In 2020, CBCGDF has filed a lawsuit against the Shanghai Xinghualou Group , analyzing results has shown that it does not meet the standards.  If over-packaging are not nip in the bud, then punishment would not work efficiently.

Third, ecological civilization is not presented. What Dr.Zhou has said show that ecological civilization should be shown in the production and consumption end. China has proposed the idea of carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality. Great efforts need to be done to realize that.

Packaging is one of our focus. Dual carbon is now national goals. Every companies need to present their timeline, project details and roadmap. Jurisdiction department should also effectively show their action by individual case. We've been through many difficulties.

From the submission of the documents to the filing of the case after 4 months. After accepting the case, the court has been coordinating with us and the defendant for mediation. Mediation is to step back and meet the requirements they offered. We did not agree. Eventually this case entered the judicial process and has reached such a result today. We think that although there are difficulties, we still want to push on firmly, hoping to achieve better results in the second trial. Of course, if the second trial cannot be supported by the court, we would continue . The ultimate goal is to make the public interest litigation does reflect the value.

Original Chinese Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/92x3SwJuYAuxud91V3MSrQ

Translator/Daisy

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