Government Environmental Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance: Evidence from China

Xiaoya Zhu,Yunli Zhu,Xiaohua Meng

doi:10.3390/su13126854

Abstract

Government environmental information disclosure (GEID) is a key policy instrument in environmental governance. Local governments in China are improving the disclosure level of environmental information, but does the environmental information disclosed by local governments reflect the existing state of the local ecological environment? This paper analyzes the correlation between GEID and environmental performance and verifies whether or not the environmental information disclosed by local governments can reflect actual local ecological environment conditions. Based on data from Chinese cities, this paper adopts a multiple regression method, and the results show that the environmental information disclosed by governments can reflect the local environmental performance as a whole, and the higher the level of GEID, the better the local environmental performance; but the relationship between the two has significant regional differences. In eastern China, the higher the level of GEID, the better the local environmental performance. In central and western China, the correlation between GEID and environmental performance is not significant. In addition, it should be noted that the correlation between the level of GEID and the emission intensity of water pollutants is not significant in all regions. This study contributes to further clarifying the effectiveness of GEID policy and identifying a breakthrough for the optimization of environmental policies faced with the dilemma of serious environmental pollution and urgent economic development needs.

Highlights

China has been changing, and people have begun to yearn for “clear water, blue sky”, instead of merely for basic materials
The results reveal that, Government environmental information disclosure (GEID) can reflect the local environmental performance in the context of China, and to a certain extent, this proves that GEID policy could improve the ecological environment quality
This study further empirically verifies the theories of Polycentric Governance and Signal Transmission and extends their application to the research on GEID by integrating GEID and environmental performance into a new framework based on data from environmental protection cities in China

Summary

Introduction

People have begun to yearn for “clear water, blue sky”, instead of merely for basic materials. Due to extensive development models enacted over the past decade, the ecological environment in China has long been overloaded and, as a result, is severely damaged [1]. In order to pursue the harmonious coexistence of “gold hills, silver hills” and “clear water, blue sky”, China is trying to govern the ecological environment. The “Notice on the Key Work Arrangements for Government Information Disclosure” and the “Notice on Further Strengthening the Work of Environmental. Protection Information Disclosure” were successively proposed in 2012. They jointly regulate the behaviors of stakeholders, including government, enterprises, and the masses

Objectives

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion