The Environmental Protection Bureau is a functional department of the government and has the highest relationship with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which is managed by the State Council.

Mainly responsible for: drafting national environmental protection guidelines, policies and regulations, and formulating administrative regulations;

To guide and coordinate the solution of major environmental problems in various regions and departments, as well as across regions and basins;

Responsible for environmental monitoring, statistics and information work;

Formulate environmental monitoring systems and norms.

In order to strengthen environmental governance, improve environmental quality as the core, implement the strictest environmental protection system, and thoroughly implement the action plan for the prevention and control of air, water and soil pollution, the communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed to implement a vertical management system for monitoring, supervision and law enforcement of environmental protection institutions below the provincial level. The vertical management of supervision and law enforcement means top-down supervision behaviors, such as the direct supervision of local governments by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the supervision of lower-level cities by provincial environmental protection departments, and the intensity of accountability will increase. On the other hand, the local environmental supervision power has not been collected, and it is still a territorial management system. In the end, it will help to form a new model of environmental protection supervision that combines the main responsibility of enterprises, local government supervision and higher authorities supervision, which not only ensures the effect of environmental law enforcement, but also curbs local protectionism.