Founded in 2001，Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP)is a public institution with independent legal status. CAEP’s missions are to carry out research on the development strategies of national ecological civilization, green development and low-carbon economy; to undertake medium-term and long-term environmental strategic planning and annual plans, pollution prevention and ecological protection planning, environmental protection planning on watershed area and urban areas, simulation of prediction analysis, preparation of planning research, implementation of evaluation and assessment and other technical work; to undertake the technical consultation, technical service and performance evaluation of projects with special funds from the central government; to undertake research and technical support on total pollutant emission control, environmental capacity calculation, pollutant discharge permit, emissions trading and climate changes; to conduct the research and provide technical support in environmental risk assessment and management, pollution damage survey and economic loss assessment; to provide the relevant technical support such as rural environmental protection and agricultural environmental management; to conduct the research and provide technical support in environmental function zoning and ecological function zoning; to carry out the environmental economic accounting and other researches on public finance of environmental protection, environmental protection tax, ecological compensation and environmental audit.

Since its foundation, CAEP always adheres to the purpose of providing high-quality decision service for our country and makes remarkable achievements in the compilation of national environmental protection plans, the research and formulation of environmental policies, the assessment of major environmental projects and the management of environmental risks. Since 2001, CAEP has completed more than 60 national plans and over 50 plans for ecological environmental protection in river basins and regions. CAEP has conducted more than 120 major science and technology projects, over 70 national environmental policy studies, and more than 60 international projects. As a number of its plans, assessment reports and environmental policies have been approved and adopted by the Chinese government, CAEP has provided an important technical support for the decision-making management of relevant departments. It won 2 second prizes and 2 third prizes of the National Scientific and Technological Progress Award, and 13 first prizes, 17 second prizes and 7 third prizes of the Scientific and Technological Award at provincial and ministerial level, and one first prize, 2 second prizes and 1 third prize of the National Excellent Engineering Consulting Achievement Award. According to the 2018 Global Go to Think Tank Index Report released by the University of Pennsylvania , CAEP ranks 36th among the world's top think tanks in environmental Policy, ranking first among the selected Chinese environmental think tanks.

At present, CAEP holds nearly 300 employees, including 1 academician of Chinese Academy of Engineer, 32 senior fellows, 68 associate fellows (including senior engineers), 208 persons with bachelor and master degrees, 71 persons with PhD degree, 2 persons with the title of "Technical Leaders of National Environmental Protection Specialty", 4 persons with the title of "Young Top Technical Talents of National Environmental Protection Specialty", 4 winners of special subsidies from the State Council, and 2 persons who have been listed in the "Ranking List of Most Influential Scholars in Chinese Philosophy and Social Sciences". A team of professional and technical talents with high knowledge level, reasonable age structure and abundant reserve talents has been formed in CAEP.