The History of Environmental Legislation Formation in the World: From the First Prohibitions to Carbon Neutrality

Environmental legislation is a much older phenomenon than is commonly believed. The earliest surviving laws on nature protection were carved in cuneiform on basalt stelae as early as the 18th century BCE: the Babylonian king Hammurabi included an entire section on forest protection and punishments for unauthorized logging in his famous code. In the 3rd century BCE, the Indian emperor Ashoka issued edicts protecting wild animals and vegetation, drawing upon Buddhist principles of non-violence. Around the same time, King Devanampiya Tissa established the world's first nature reserve in Sri Lanka. However, the modern system of environmental law as we know it began to take shape only in the second half of the 20th century—and in each major region of the world, this process followed its own unique path.

Europe: From No Mention to the World's Most Comprehensive Environmental Legislation

The Treaty of Rome of 1957, which established the European Economic Community, contained not a single mention of environmental protection. The reason was simple: in post-war Europe, the priority was economic recovery, not the protection of nature. The first cautious step was taken only in 1967 with the adoption of the Directive on the Classification, Packaging, and Labeling of Dangerous Substances.

The real turning point came in 1972—coinciding with a global environmental awakening. The UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, which for the first time recognized the human right to "freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being," spurred European countries to action. That same year, at the Paris Summit of Heads of State and Government of the EEC member states, a decision was made to develop a common environmental policy. Starting in 1973, Environmental Action Programs were adopted, and since then, numerous sources of EU law have been enacted, forming the largest and most comprehensive set of environmental standards in the world.

Legally, the status of environmental policy was enshrined in 1986 by the Single European Act, which added a special section on the environment to the Treaty of Rome. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 not only established the European Union but also definitively granted environmental protection the status of one of the EU's key policies.

Researchers identify four stages in the development of European environmental law. The first—from 1958 to 1972—was a time when only isolated national acts aimed at solving specific problems were adopted. The second stage (1972–1986) was marked by the formation of a common environmental policy and the first action programs. The third stage (1986–1992) saw the consolidation of environmental competence in the founding treaties. Finally, the fourth stage—from 1992 to the present—is characterized by the systematic development of environmental law and its integration into all areas of EU activity.

Today, the European Union continues to be a global leader in environmental regulation. In December 2019, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal—an ambitious roadmap aimed at transforming Europe into the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The key objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. However, in 2025, a certain political rollback emerged within EU circles: major political parties agreed to relax the requirements of the Green Deal to reduce the administrative burden on business. Nevertheless, it is precisely the European model of environmental legislation that has served as a benchmark for many countries worldwide—including the post-Soviet space.

USA: From National Parks to Political Swings

The United States approached the formation of environmental legislation somewhat differently than Europe, yet no less systematically. American environmental law has deep roots: as early as 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established—the first of its kind in the world. However, the modern regulatory system began taking shape in the 1950s with the passage of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which later evolved into the Clean Water Act.

A true breakthrough occurred in the early 1970s, riding the wave of a powerful grassroots movement symbolized by the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. That same year, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order creating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—the world's first specialized government body of this magnitude. Congress passed an updated Clean Air Act, establishing national air quality standards, vehicle emission limits, and industrial requirements.

The year 1972 brought the Clean Water Act, which remains the cornerstone of American water legislation to this day. This was followed by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976), governing hazardous waste management, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (1980), better known as "Superfund," designed to clean up the nation's most contaminated sites.

The American system was initially built on stringent command-and-control approaches: the EPA set maximum allowable pollution levels and required industries to comply under threat of substantial penalties. In 1990, sweeping amendments to the Clean Air Act were adopted, aimed at combating acid rain, toxic emissions, and ozone layer depletion.

However, since the early 2000s, U.S. environmental policy has become an arena of fierce political struggle. In 2009, under the Obama administration, the EPA issued the "Endangerment Finding"—a determination that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health and welfare, which became the legal basis for regulating CO₂ emissions under the Clean Air Act. This decision was of immense significance, paving the way for federal climate regulation.

In 2025–2026, the Trump administration initiated a sweeping rollback of environmental regulations: the EPA revoked greenhouse gas emission standards for motor vehicles and rescinded the 2009 Endangerment Finding itself. At the same time, the EPA retained its authority to regulate traditional pollutants—sulfur dioxide, mercury, and coal ash from power plants. Environmental law experts note that these changes could reverse progress made over recent decades and significantly weaken the country's ability to combat climate change.

China: From Millennia-Old Traditions to the Most Ambitious Environmental Code

China occupies a special place in this global picture. On the one hand, Chinese civilization possesses perhaps the most ancient tradition of environmental regulation. Historians claim that the first environmental law was adopted in the territory of modern China as early as the second millennium BC, while environmental ideas date back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC). On the other hand, modern environmental legislation in China only began to take shape in the 1980s, when the country faced the catastrophic consequences of accelerated industrialization.

In 1979, even before Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, the first Environmental Protection Law in China's history was adopted (as a pilot project), and its full version was adopted in 1989. From that moment on, the systematic development of environmental law began: the National People's Congress and the State Council of the People's Republic of China adopted nine environmental protection laws, 15 natural resource protection laws, and 50 administrative regulations. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China clearly stated: "The state protects and improves the living environment and ecology."

However, the real turning point came with President Xi Jinping's announcement in 2020 of "two carbon targets": peaking emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. This announcement launched an unprecedented transformation of China's entire legal system.

In March 2026, China achieved what many experts call a historic breakthrough: the adoption of the Unified Environmental Code of the People's Republic of China, which will come into effect on August 15, 2026. This document, containing over 1,200 articles, has become the country's second most important code after the Civil Code. It consolidated and systematized approximately ten previously disparate laws that partially overlapped or even contradicted each other, and for the first time in Chinese legal history, created a separate section dedicated to "green and low-carbon development." The adoption of the code demonstrates China's image as a responsible nation and creates a predictable legal framework for business and international cooperation.

At the same time, China is also developing other areas. On January 1, 2025, the country's first-ever Energy Law, designed to promote carbon neutrality, came into effect. In 2024, a plan was presented to create a unified national carbon footprint management system, allowing for the assessment of emissions across the entire supply chain. The adopted Environmental Code is expected to influence not only domestic policy but also raise environmental standards in China's trading partners.

Middle East: Israel — An Environmental Pioneer in the Desert

In the Middle East, where issues of water and land have historically been matters of survival, Israel occupies a unique position. Environmental stewardship in this region has deep religious and cultural roots: as far back as two thousand years ago, Talmudic law prescribed that tanneries be located at a certain minimum distance and downwind from residential areas.

Immediately after the establishment of the state in 1948, the idea of creating a Society for the Protection of Nature emerged. It began its work in 1954, initially focusing mainly on educational activities. In 1956, a special department for the protection of nature and historical monuments was formed under the Prime Minister's Office, and in 1963 its functions were expanded and transferred to the Nature Reserves Authority and the National Parks Authority.

A turning point came in 1973 when, on the initiative of Yigal Allon, an Environmental Protection Service was established within Prime Minister Golda Meir's office. In 1988, it was transformed into the full-fledged Ministry of Environmental Protection of Israel.

For a long time, Israeli environmental legislation remained fragmented, with air quality regulation being the weakest link. The first Abatement of Nuisances Law addressing air pollution was enacted as early as 1961, but it proved ineffective: for twenty years, no ministry showed particular interest in the problem of air pollution. It was only in 2008 that the Knesset passed a comprehensive Clean Air Law, which came into force in 2011 and became Israel's first holistic environmental law, built around the necessity of protecting public health.

Today, Israel is recognized as a global leader in water technologies, desalination, and irrigation. The country's environmental legislation covers a wide range of areas: air, water, waste, soil, noise, and radiation, as well as nature and landscape conservation. Israel's experience demonstrates how a nation facing extreme climatic conditions and constant water scarcity can build an effective system of environmental regulation.

Post-Soviet Space: Soviet Legacy and the Search for a New Path

The history of environmental legislation in the post-Soviet space is largely a story of overcoming the Soviet legacy. At the same time, it is important to note that the Soviet republics were among the first in the world to adopt comprehensive laws on nature protection. As early as 1957–1963, laws "On Nature Protection" were adopted in all Union republics, making them pioneers in global legislative regulation of the interaction between nature and society.

In September 1972—the year of the UN Stockholm Conference—a session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR proclaimed nature protection and the careful use of natural resources as one of the state's most important tasks. In the late 1980s, the USSR State Committee for Nature Protection (Goskompriroda) was established, and work began on drafting a new all-Union law on environmental protection.

However, as we discussed in detail in the previous article, the Soviet system faced a fundamental contradiction: the planned economy, focused on gross output targets, created powerful incentives to circumvent or ignore environmental requirements. By the end of the USSR's existence, total harmful emissions into the atmosphere reached 64 million tons annually—second highest in the world.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, each of the newly independent republics went its own way, but with a common starting point: the Soviet system of regulation based on the principles of maximum allowable concentrations and maximum permissible emissions.

Russia after 1991 faced the necessity of creating an almost entirely new legal framework. In 1991, the RSFSR Law "On Environmental Protection" was adopted, and in 2002 it was replaced by the Federal Law "On Environmental Protection." However, environmental legislation in the 1990s and early 2000s took a path of weakening environmental requirements and reducing state involvement in solving ecological problems. By Presidential Decree No. 867 in 2000, the State Committee for Environmental Protection of the Russian Federation was abolished, and its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Natural Resources—a move many experts viewed as a serious weakening of environmental oversight. In recent years, the situation has begun to change: a large-scale revision of environmental legislation is underway, aimed at harmonization with natural resource legislation and the introduction of best available techniques.

Kazakhstan took the path of systematizing environmental law. When drafting the Environmental Code, adopted in 2007 (and updated in 2021), the environmental laws then in force in European countries were taken as a basis. This allowed Kazakhstan to become the first country in the post-Soviet space to create codified environmental legislation.

The remaining Central Asian countries—Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—have also adopted national laws on environmental protection, but their practical implementation faces the same problems as in Russia: outdated equipment, weak enforcement, and a shortage of funding and personnel. The environmental legislation of post-Soviet countries is characterized by the mutual penetration of the most successful legal norms and institutions operating in other countries, but this process is uneven.

Conclusion: Common Trends and National Specifics

The history of the formation of environmental legislation worldwide reveals several universal patterns. First, in virtually all countries and regions, the starting point for the systematic development of environmental law was the 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. It was this conference that established the global framework and legitimized environmental issues at the international level.

Second, the development of environmental legislation everywhere shows a transition from solving local problems (urban air pollution, drinking water quality) to comprehensive regulation encompassing climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable development. And third, the effectiveness of legislation depends directly not so much on the strictness of the written norms as on the existence of effective enforcement mechanisms and the political will to apply them.

Today, the world is entering a new era of environmental regulation. The European Union, with its "Green Deal," is striving for climate neutrality by 2050, although it faces business resistance and political compromises. The United States is experiencing a period of turbulence, where climate policy fluctuates with changes in administration. China, by contrast, demonstrates a consistent tightening of environmental requirements, culminating in the adoption of the Environmental Code—a document unparalleled in the scale of its systematization. Israel proves that even under conditions of acute resource scarcity, an effective system of nature protection can be built.

As for the post-Soviet space, it finds itself in a unique situation: with one of the world's oldest traditions of environmental regulation behind it, the region's countries are forced to simultaneously tackle two tasks—modernizing the industry inherited from the USSR and creating a legal system capable of meeting contemporary challenges. Kazakhstan has already embarked on the path of codification, taking European experience as a model. Russia and other CIS countries are in the process of finding their own balance between economic interests and environmental requirements.

The overall trend is clear: environmental legislation is becoming increasingly integrated, technology-driven, and oriented toward long-term goals. And the success with which each country can integrate into this global process will determine not only the quality of the environment but also the competitiveness of its economy in the emerging "green" era.