Environmental Mission Scholars in Action

Through its Environmental Mission Scholars program, the U.S.Asia Partnerships for Environmental Law (PEL) supports young legal professionals in China on their paths to becoming environmental advocates and stewards. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the PEL 2020 student cohort has continued engaging in environmental legal advocacy on the ground and providing legal services to environmental NGOs in China.

Here are some highlights:

Attorney Lu Peiyuan, a mission scholar based in the Environmental Law Clinic at Wuhan University, assisted an NGO in filing environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) to stop water pollution allegedly caused by a chemical plant in Shiyan City of Hubei Province— the very first EPIL case this NGO has filed. The court has accepted the case, and attorney Lu will help to litigate it.

Working at the Research Center of Duke Kunshan University, mission scholar and attorney Li Mengqi LLM’21 supported a civil society organization by filing a legal opinion letter. The letter challenged the local government’s decision to develop a wetland in Shanghai that is an important habitat for migratory birds.

Mission scholars Qiao Hailing and Wang Xinyi are working as legal and policy assistants for Friends of Nature, a Chinese environmental NGO. They helped to draft a legislative study report on China’s National Park and Protected Areas legislations.