The use of environmental tort claims to compensate pollution victims or to protect the environment and human health is still in an early stage of development in China. Nevertheless, tort cases play an outsized role in China’s environmental law system. From 2004 to 2009, China’s courts heard more environmental pollutionrelated tort cases than pollution-related administrative and criminal cases combined. Since 1998, the number of environmental lawsuits filed with the courts increased at an annual average of 25%.