The legal measures in coping carbon emissions from marine fisheries--an empirical study from China

Climate change has become a globally significant issue of widespread concern in the international community, with anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions being recognized as the primary driver. As a major emitter, China has announced its goals of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060. In this context, addressing carbon emissions from marine sectors, particularly fishing vessels, has become an important but underexplored aspect of climate governance.This study adopts a normative legal analysis combined with policy analysis to examine the existing regulatory framework governing carbon emissions from China’s marine fishing vessels. Relevant international climate law instruments, domestic environmental and fisheries legislation, and current administrative practices are systematically reviewed.The analysis reveals that China currently faces several institutional challenges in regulating fishing vessel carbon emissions, including the absence of specialized legislation, fragmented regulatory responsibilities among multiple authorities, incomplete emissions data systems, and insufficient financial and technical support mechanisms.To address these challenges, this study recommends strengthening dedicated legislation and policy frameworks, clarifying regulatory mandates, establishing a nationally unified carbon emissions database for fishing vessels, improving the marine fisheries transfer payment system, and implementing a “dual control” policy on fishing vessel scale and energy consumption, thereby promoting the low-carbon transformation of China’s marine fisheries sector.