Founded in 2001, the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning of the State Environmental Protection Administration(SEPA), also known as the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP), is a public institution with independent legal status. Under the leadership of SEPA and the dedication of CAEP staff, CAEP has established itself as a valuable resource in the field of environmental policy study and planning.

CAEP’s mission is to provide technical support and services such as environmental planning, environmental policy,　and consultation on environmental project selection management for the Chinese government and corporations in a timely and efficient manner; an international organization for research and cooperation on environmental planning and environmental policies; and a leading think tank for Chinese environmental protection administration in the new era.

Since its foundation, CAEP has undertaken about 50 national key research and planning projects, 30 river basin or regional level planning projects, 20 international cooperation projects from the UN, EU, OECD, ADB, and other countries. CAEP has provided a great deal of scientific and technical support for Chinese governmental authorities to aid their decision making. In return, it has gained recognition from the central government, scientific　research institutions, universities, local governments and international organizations. CAEP has been awarded one first-class and four third-class awards for science and technology improvement at the ministerial level. CAEP staff have published about 20 books and over 100 papers since 2001.

In the last five years, CAEP has not only accomplished a great number of national environmental planning projects and research tasks, but also developed atmospheric environmental capacity simulation software, water environmental capacity simulation software, and pollution economic loss investigation and accounting software. It has provided　consulting services on a variety of topics, such as environmental planning, environmental carrying capacity accounting, environmental policy and environmental engineering. CAEP also issues periodic feature reports called Environmental Policy Research Series and Important Environmental Information for Reference with SEPA officials as the main readers.