Regional policy synergy and haze governance-empirical evidence from 281 prefecture-level cities in China.

Abstract

The spatial spillover effect of haze pollution makes the local independent governance model inefficient, and it requires regional synergy to achieve the relatively high efficiency of haze governance. This article counts the frequency of environmental policy vocabulary in the government work reports of 30 provinces in China (mainly include the words ecology, pollution, energy, atmosphere, low carbon, etc.) and multiplies it with the proportion of the added value of the secondary industry in the GDP of the 281 prefecture-level cities under the jurisdiction of each province to obtain quantitative policy information and then use gray relational analysis to measure the degree of policy synergy of 281 prefecture-level cities in China. Finally, based on the data of PM2.5 and the degree of policy synergy of 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2016, combined with the data of a series of urban characteristic variables, the dynamic panel model is used to empirically examine the impact of regional policy synergy on haze governance. The results of the study show that between 2007 and 2016, the level of haze pollution is relatively high, ranging from 30 to 65μg/m3, with the highest level in the central and eastern regions, ranging from 50 to 65μg/m3, and relatively low in the northeast and west, ranging from 30 to 50μg/m3. The degree of policy synergy among China's regions has been volatile during the evolution and is between primary synergy and mild imbalance. The degree of policy synergy has a significant negative impact on haze pollution, and the impact coefficient is about - 0.3; that is, policy synergy has a significant positive effect on haze governance. In addition, the industrial structure with a high proportion of secondary industry, the agglomeration of the population, and the production activities it brings will increase the haze pollution in China, and the increase in government expenditure on science and technology will help alleviate the haze pollution. The government can strengthen regional policy synergy, improve the mechanism of synergistic governance in various regions, and formulate strict and unified standards of regional environmental management based on the conditions of each region.