The Predicament and Legal Approach of China's Environmental Information Disclosure System under the "Dual Carbon" Goals

The proposal of the dual carbon goals has endowed the improvement and upgrading of China's environmental governance system with new era propositions. The environmental information disclosure system, which enables producers and operators to disclose their own environmental protection information and accept public supervision, as a fundamental system for ecological and environmental governance, is clearly regulated in the General Provisions of the draft of the Ecological and Environmental Code, further highlighting its institutional value. Taking this as an opportunity, we should clarify the institutional connotation of the environmental information disclosure system in the context of the coordinated advancement of pollution reduction and carbon emission reduction, establish its core positioning as a bridge connecting government supervision and enterprise self-governance, and take the principle of dual importance as theoretical guidance to re-examine the predicament where the function of this system is hindered in environmental governance, and then explore specific paths for system optimization It can provide solid support for the long-term value realization of enterprises and the upgrading of environmental governance. At present, China's environmental information disclosure system mainly faces three prominent problems: First, the classification boundary between voluntary and mandatory information disclosure is ambiguous, resulting in an unclear definition of enterprises' disclosure responsibilities; Second, there is a gap in the connection of legal norms led by multiple departments, which is prone to cause conflicts in the application of systems. Thirdly, the lack of unified regulation on disclosure standards and evaluation systems restricts the horizontal comparability of environmental information among enterprises. The above-mentioned predicament will restrict the full play of the governance effectiveness of the environmental information disclosure system after its inclusion in the regulations. It is of practical urgency to explore the way to improve the system and incorporate it into the regulations: clarify the classification standards for voluntary and mandatory information disclosure, and refine the disclosure obligations of different types of enterprises. Sort out and integrate legal norms from multiple departments to achieve coordinated compatibility in the application of systems. Establish a unified national disclosure standard and evaluation system to enhance the quality of environmental information; Innovate diversified regulatory governance mechanisms, strengthen regulatory synergy and the intensity of punishment for violations, and strive to establish a complete set of systems, diverse means, unified domestic standards and international trade rule-compliant codified environmental information disclosure system, providing a solid legal guarantee for the steady realization of the dual carbon goals.