China's ecological environment governance is undergoing a historic leap from "having laws to follow" to "having rules to follow". The highly anticipated draft of the Ecological Environment Code is about to be submitted for review at the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress. This is the second law in China named after the Civil Code, marking the official entry of China into the era of "codification" by using the rule of law to protect green mountains and clear waters. The compilation of a legal code is a significant milestone in the construction of the rule of law. If the past ecological environment protection laws were scattered "pearls", then "codification" means stringing them together into a beautiful "necklace" and inlaying it with new gems. China attaches great importance to ecological environment protection and regards the construction of ecological civilization as the fundamental plan for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. At present, the ecological environment field has formed a huge institutional system covering more than 30 laws, over 100 administrative regulations, over 1000 local regulations, and numerous national ecological environment standards. However, it cannot be ignored that there are also issues of repetition and lack of coordination. Compiling this code is conducive to enhancing the systematicity, integrity, and synergy of China's ecological environment legal system, and is an inevitable choice to respond to the public's expectations for a better ecological environment with the power of the rule of law. Focusing on the present, "making significant progress in building a beautiful China" has been listed as one of the main goals of economic and social development during the "15th Five Year Plan" period. The "15th Five Year Plan" proposes a series of new deployments and requirements for building a beautiful China. If the law is established, green mountains will always be there, and if the system is established, green waters will flow endlessly. The significance of promoting the compilation of legal codes in the first year of the 15th Five Year Plan is not only to establish new regulations, but also to unify the overall situation. This will further improve the institutional system of ecological civilization, and build a systematic, standardized, and authoritative Great Wall of the rule of law for the construction of a beautiful China where humans and nature coexist harmoniously. As an advanced form of national legislation, the code requires stricter legislative conditions than general legislation. This draft code has undergone meticulous polishing. From the first appearance of the draft code in April last year, to the completion of the second review of each draft in two batches in September and October, and then to the split review and "merger" in December, the compilation of the code has steadily progressed over the past year. The draft of the Ecological Environment Code, which was split and reviewed before being "merged", is divided into five parts, including the General Provisions, Pollution Prevention and Control, Ecological Protection, Green and Low Carbon Development, Legal Liability and Supplementary Provisions, with a total of 1242 articles. Improve the universal institutional norms in the field of ecological environment, integrate and optimize the legal system norms for pollution prevention and control, lead and coordinate the legal system norms for ecological protection, and make principled and leading provisions for green and low-carbon development, climate change response, carbon peak and carbon neutrality... The draft code is detailed in content and sets the "general rules" for safeguarding the ecological environment. Of particular note is that the draft of the Code will independently compile the concept of "green and low-carbon development", which is the first of its kind globally. This not only responds to the era's proposition of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, but also marks the maturity of China's understanding of the relationship between "development and protection" - from "end of pipe governance" to "source control", and from "passive response" to "leading transformation". Not only does it have lofty intentions, but the draft code also takes into account both the big and the small, focusing on the concerns of ordinary people. The general provisions clearly state at the beginning that "safeguarding public health and ecological environment rights and interests" is included in the legislative purpose; The special chapter on pollution prevention and control focuses on "social life noise"; Refine the governance rules for issues such as oil fumes and odors at the doorstep... Each regulation will refine the grand narrative of the rule of law into a tangible and tangible temperature of people's livelihood, highlighting the people-centered foundation. Not only based on Chinese practice, the compilation of the legal code also pays attention to the environmental issues faced globally. The draft stipulates green and low-carbon international cooperation, actively participating in leading the global green transformation, and other contents; The clear implementation of multilateral and bilateral international cooperation and exchanges in response to climate change reflects the adherence to a global perspective in the compilation of the legal code, which has contributed unique Chinese solutions to global ecological environment governance and provided Eastern references for the compilation of the world legal code. An ecological environment code measures the scale of China's development and also marks the temperature of the rule of law civilization. With the opening of the National People's Congress, the legislative process of this code, which is infused with the spirit of the times and embodies Chinese wisdom, will take a historic step forward. (New Society)