Construction of China’s climate civil public interest litigation system–from the perspective of public health protection and medical assistance

To safeguard public health, ecological and environmental rights, and ecological security, China enacted the Ecological Environment Code in 2026, which includes a dedicated chapter on climate change. However, climate civil public interest litigation addressing climate-related health damage still relies on general ecological and environmental litigation provisions and lacks a specialized institutional framework. Climate change not only disrupts ecosystems and carbon cycle balance, but also increases disease burden, intensifies pressure on medical resources, and exacerbates health inequalities, posing systemic challenges to public health and medical security systems. For example, extreme weather events raise the incidence of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, ecological imbalance promotes the spread of vector-borne and infectious diseases, and vulnerable populations face increased health risks and medical burdens. Although closely related to ecological destruction and air pollution public interest litigation, climate civil public interest litigation differs in its theoretical foundation, value objectives, normative sco