EXPERT INSIGHT 52 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | MAY 2022 About Jean Zhu Jean Zhu has a combined background in materials, engineering and law. She is now a partner of Merits & Tree Law Offices based in Beijing and Shanghai with practice areas including dispute resolution, real estate & infrastructure and regulatory & compliance. Jean is a commercial and construction dispute lawyer with extensive experience in construction and engineering, crossborder transactions, international trade, insurance, bonds, agency, guarantees and product liabilityrelated disputes. About Merits & Tree Law Offices Merits & Tree Law Offices (植德律 师事务所) was established in 2006 under the name of Beijing Hawkhigh Law Offices and was renamed Merits & Tree Law Offices in 2017. Merits & Tree has a team of over 80 partners and 300 lawyers and legal assistants across offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Zhuhai, Haikou and its Beijing headquarters. Jean Zhu, Partner Merits & Tree Law Offices 5th Floor, Raffles City Beijing Office Tower, No. 1 Dongzhimen South Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100007 Tel: +86 10 5921 0936 E: jing.zhu@meritsandtree.com www.meritsandtree.com/english on the Quality Management of Construction Projects (2019 Revision), Regulation on the Work Safety of Construction Projects; and Regulation on the Administration of Survey and Design of Construction Projects (2017 Revision), to name a few. The Ministry of Housing and UrbanRural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other ministries may release various implementation rules of administrative regulations as well as model contracts on domestic projects, like the recent Model Contract for General Contracting Project (GF-20200216) between an employer and a general contractor issued in November 2020. The Supreme People’s Court may also issue judicial interpretations and guiding cases for hearing constructionrelated litigation. What has been the impact on the construction sector following China’s commitment to carbon neutrality and a “net zero” future? China pledged that it will peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 at the 75th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in September last year. Following this, with various regulatory support, green and lowcarbon energy projects like solar power plants, wind power plants, hydrogen energy projects and energy storage projects have become increasingly popular in the domestic construction sector, which has attracted investment funds. In addition, the NDRC and the other three Ministries recently issued a joint Opinion on Promoting Green Development of One Belt One Road. In this Opinion, China will strengthen international cooperation on the promotion of green development of the OBOR to establish a green development mode for the OBOR initiative by 2030. It reiterated China’s position that it will no longer invest in overseas coal-fired power plants to push forward energy transition and to adapt green development. In line with this transition in energy and construction sectors in domestic and overseas markets, the contractual framework and mechanism may further address issues in project investment and implementation phases for unique features of green energy projects such as tariff structures, entailment, ecological and environmental assessments and permits, etc. On the legislative side, the adoption of the Law of Energy as basic law in the energy sector has been listed as one of the major items in the government’s working plan for legislation in 2022. China pledged that it will peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 .
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