Chemicals Management Policies in Europe and China

The report provides a detailed overview of the EU's REACH and CLP regulations and the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability, alongside China's evolving environmental law system and its management of new and existing chemical substances. It highlights gaps in the EU's data availability and the nascent state of China's environmental risk assessment system, ultimately recommending institutionalised annual exchanges and capacity-building activities under the EU-China Environmental Policy Dialogue to share technical expertise and policy lessons.

• The EU's REACH regulation shifts the burden of proof to economic operators, requiring manufacturers and importers to prove substances can be used safely, though significant data gaps persist. Approximately 23,000 substances are registered, while over 100,000 are estimated to be on the market, and a 2018 study found only one third of 3,800 dossiers for substances over 1,000 tonnes per year met information requirements.
• The EU Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) aims for a non-toxic circular economy by 2050 and proposes updating REACH and CLP to include new hazard classes such as endocrine disruptive chemicals (EDCs), persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT) properties, and very persistent and very mobile (vPvM) substances.
• China's chemicals management is structured around a three-tier environmental law system, but specific legislation dedicated to the environmental management of chemicals has not yet been developed, leaving the framework in its 'infancy'.
• China manages new chemical substances through a registration system based on annual production or import volumes: regular registration for volumes above 10 tons, simplified registration for 1-10 tons, and filing for volumes under 1 ton or polymers of low concern.
• China's technical system for environmental risk assessment of chemical substances is considered inadequate, having only started in 2019 with the issuance of framework guidelines and subsequent technical documents on hazard and exposure assessment.
• The report recommends that the EU and China institutionalise cooperation through the EU-China Environmental Policy Dialogue, focusing on annual exchanges regarding the 'Safe and sustainable by design' (SSbD) framework, computational toxicology, and the Global Framework on Chemicals.

APA

Schenten, J., & Haihong, G. (2024). Chemicals Management Policies in Europe and China. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/owrm1cij/01-eu_china_chemicals.pdf

Chicago

Schenten, Julian, and Ge Haihong. Chemicals Management Policies in Europe and China. ClientEarth, 2024. https://www.clientearth.org/media/owrm1cij/01-eu_china_chemicals.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Schenten |first1=Julian |last2=Haihong |first2=Ge |title=Chemicals Management Policies in Europe and China |publisher=ClientEarth |date=December 2024 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/owrm1cij/01-eu_china_chemicals.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{schenten2024chemicals, author = {Schenten, Julian and Haihong, Ge}, title = {{Chemicals Management Policies in Europe and China}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2024}, month = dec, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/owrm1cij/01-eu_china_chemicals.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }