A Study on the Payment Standards for Environmental Services in Air Pollution Governance of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei

Abstract

With the 40 years of rapid development, China has made extraordinary achievements in economy, but also accumulated a large number of ecological environment problems. Especially, a high incidence of air pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei（BTH）, which has high social sensitivity and concern, is the focus of China’s air pollution governance. At present, because of the lack of effective incentive mechanisms, the joint prevention and control of BTH’s air pollution is difficult to promote substantially. The mechanism of payments for environmental services（PES）is an important means of ecological environmental protection and a vital endogenous incentive for transboundary environmental governance. The absence of the basic study of PES for air pollution governance（especially the determination of payment standards）is one of the important reasons leading to the dilemma of joint prevention and control of air pollution in BTH. This paper establishes a CGE model of air pollution governance in BTH based on the Opportunity Cost Method（OCM）, modelling the effects of cutting industrial capacity on economic output and PM2.5 emission reduction by setting different sulfur tax shocks, and quantifying the payment standards for air pollution governance in BTH. Firstly, this paper puts forward the concept of theoretical maximum of payment standards” originally based on specific causes of air pollution in BTH; secondly, it provides the payment intervals that Hebei should accept under specific air quality objectives; thirdly, a complete framework of determining the payment standards for environmental services of BTH’s air pollution governance is proposed. This paper finds that: Firstly, cutting the industrial capacity of Hebei has great effects on BTH’s air pollution control; the PM2.5 emission reduction effect differs highly depending on industries, and the means of pollution control should be chosen precisely based on the structural differences of industries. Secondly, the theoretical maximum of payment standards” based on the hypothesis of Hebei’s governance alone can be used as the upper limit of the payment standards for BTH’s air pollution governance, and the lower limit can be determined by the theoretical maximum of payment standards” and the nominal” proportion of Hebei’s secondary industry; the point value” of opportunity cost under BTH joint governance can be used as the reference of the payment standards for air pollution governance in BTH. Thirdly, in addition to the above, we need to consider multiple factors such as functional orientation, economic disparity and so on to adjust and calibrate the specific compensation amount dynamically. This paper constructs a complete framework of determining the standards of PES for BTH’s air governance, which provides a theoretical basis and technical support to accelerate the substantive process of BTH’s air pollution joint governance, with important theoretical and methodologically innovative significance. The paper is of great policy significance for improving the ecological construction system and the air quality in BTH as soon as possible. It is also of great significance for air pollution governance in other key regions of China.