In the dual constraint of energy safety and climate change，shale gas has become one of hotspots in the international energy field in the past several years，along with the technology breakthrough of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However，shale gas exploitation has to face greater environment and climate risk，compared with conventional natural gas. The green development of shale gas depends on whether environmental risk of resource extraction is effectively regulated. In China today，we have to face multiple challenges such as climate change，energy structure optimization，and improvement of air quality. That is why policy makers place high hopes on shale gas development. But various real constraints such as current fragmented resource-environment regulatory system，poor applicability of existing environmental legal system，weak environmental monitoring capacity and inadequate understanding towards environment & climate risk，will lead to great uncertainty on green exploitation of shale gas. Based on this，the paper describes the state quo of shale gas development in China，explores main issues and major obstacles in current environmental regulation towards shale gas development，summarizes American environmental risk prevention experience in shale gas extraction，and finally puts forward relevant suggestions to facilitate the building-up of an environmental regulatory system towards green development of shale gas.