Local Environmental Governance Research Articles

Analysing Local Environmental Disputes and Governance in Belt and Road Host Countries: Establishing Legitimacy through the Social License to Operate (SLO)

Analysing Local Environmental Disputes and Governance in Belt and Road Host Countries: Establishing Legitimacy through the Social License to Operate (SLO)

Domesticating sustainability transitions: Spatial and temporal variation of industrial eco-efficiency in China

This study analyses regional industrial sustainability transitions from global and local perspectives. We measure industrial eco-efficiency (IEE) of 280 cities in China from 2010 to 2020 and analyze potential influencing factors using geographical and temporal weighted regression model. We find that foreign investment and international trade are positively associated with IEE with diminishing effects, and then local household consumption enhances IEE on the basis of local environmental governance. The effects of international environmental regulations and technology spillover on IEE are positive, as they align with China's drive for innovation. We further categorize cities into five distinct types based on the influences of both global and local factors—dominated by local environmental regulations, driven by international standards, propelled by foreign investment, shaped by local market dynamics, and affected by multiple factors. We conclude that regional industrial sustainability transitions in China are influenced by forces operating at various scales and exhibit distinct spatiotemporal variation. The drivers of these transitions have shifted from a global scale to a local scale, and both regional conditions and the stage of industrialization significantly affect the intensity of actions undertaken by different scale factors. Finally, we propose policy recommendations, considering regional heterogeneity and the stages of industrialization.

Rectifying local governments’ strategic environmental enforcement: Can refined air pollution monitoring enhance local air quality in China?

Insufficient local environmental enforcement has become a pivotal economic and political concern in China. In 2017, the Chinese central government introduced the Air Pollution Hot-Spot Grid (APHG) monitoring program. However, little is known about the consequences. This study investigates in detail how this monitoring program affects city-level air pollution by applying the difference-in-differences method. This program was responsible for a notable decrease in air pollution at the city level. This decrease was mostly the result of stronger local environmental governance, advances in green innovation, and an upgraded industrial structure. Additionally, an examination of heterogeneous treatment effects across different cities revealed that the most substantial effects were observed in large, non-resource-based, and eastern cities. Additional analysis reveals the presence of a spillover effect, whereby the adoption of this program in one city helps reduce air pollution in nearby cities. These results highlight the significance of refined air pollution monitoring for addressing imperfect local environmental enforcement.

Fiscal decentralization and local environmental governance when performance evaluation Matters

ABSTRACT The impact of fiscal decentralization on social and economic development has been widely studied; however, there is extensive debate on whether fiscal decentralization can effectively promote local environmental governance. This article aimed to provide a new perspective by revealing the causality between fiscal decentralization and environmental governance. With the policy of disclosing the Air Quality Index (AQI) in China, we constructed a quasi-experimental framework and conducted an empirical analysis using a city dataset from 2007 to 2019 in China. The empirical results show that (1) whether fiscal decentralization contributes to local environmental governance depends on performance evaluation. (2) The governance effect is more pronounced in areas closer to air quality monitoring stations, regions that prioritized haze in their evaluation, and regions with more severe air pollution. The results of this article indicate that performance evaluation plays an important moderating role in the relationship between fiscal decentralization and environmental governance. Enhancing the level of decentralization and performance evaluation are effective strategies for enhancing the governance capacity of local governments.

The influence of public awareness on public participation in environmental governance: Empirical evidence in China

Abstract Public participation in environmental governance is conducive to alleviating environmental pollution. In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of public to participate in environmental governance, based on the CGSS samples oriented to the whole China, we analyze the influence of public awareness on four kinds of public participation in environmental governance: consciousness participation, inducement participation, input participation and ex-post participation. The results show that environmental risk awareness and media usage awareness have positive effects on four kinds of public participation behaviors. The public with a frugal lifestyle in daily life tend to choose inducement participation. Governmental interaction awareness promotes public participation in environmental governance, especially the input participation behavior. The public with a positive legal awareness tends to opt for ex-post participation. Unobstructed channels of environmental rights protection and higher level of environmental cognition are important factors to promote public participation in environmental governance. However, the public's low evaluation of the government environmental governance and the public's pursuit of short-term economic interests will lead to the reduction of participation enthusiasm. The results have passed the endogenous test and robustness test. As the real environmental governance of the local government is not always consistent with the public's evaluation of the local government's environmental governance, the inconsistency may influence the public participation in environmental governance.

The Impact of Environmental Governance and Quality of Life on Fertility Intentions

Objectives: Here, local environmental governance, quality of life, and fertility intention in 30 provinces, municipalities, and regions of China during 2004–2020 are also examined in terms of their co-evolution pattern. Methods: A detailed analytical method of evaluation is used by our team. It entails the determination of the environmental governance index, quality of life index and fertility intention index in order to examine their inter relacion with each other the variation and distribution within regions. Results: Our research is also demonstrated by the fact that as a whole the values of the environmental governance index and the quality of life index are increasing nationwide, which indicates that China is also experiencing certain positive changes for the better regarding environmental protection and the quality of life. Nonetheless, fertility intention index trend was characterized by increase then decrease, apparently indicating the underlying socioeconomic factors. Regional comparisons show that the East is the best place for environment governance and quality, and the fertility intention index of Northeast remains lower than other areas. Conclusions: China has become one of the advanced countries in environmental governance and improved quality of life, but the continuously decreasing level in fertility intention reflects the complex effect of changes in population policy and soci:economic factors.

Urban conflict management, human‐wild animal interactions, local environmental governance and political participation

AbstractLocal authorities today cope with environmental changes. As urbanization advances, the overlap between nature and the world of human beings increases. The resulting new interactions between humans and wild animals have many consequences. The perspectives of public administration and politics regarding this issue remain unexplored. There is limited research on local environmental crises and local environmental governance regarding the interactions between people and animals in the management of urban spaces. Therefore, we conducted a study using the presence of wild boars in Haifa, Israel. It tests the impact of support for the incumbent mayor through the mediated relationship of the harm caused by wild animals and the moderating effect of local governance on local political participation. Our findings may advance current theory to local administration and local environmental governance. On a practical level, policymakers can design effective local environmental governance, and promote behaviors on the part of politicians and residents.

Conflict or coordination? The cross-departmental interaction in local environmental governance of China

Organizational coordination has been regarded as a vital factor to determine the environmental governance efficiency of local authority, while existing empirical studies mainly discuss the vertical decentralization but largely ignore the horizontal cross-departmental interaction within single government. Based on the data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach, two-way fixed-effect models and dynamic panel regression with system generalized method of moments estimation (SYS-GMM) to investigate the environmental strategic interaction between two representative departments (finance department and environmental protection department) within local governments. The results indicate, on the whole, their environmental governance strategies show a significantly co-directional coordination. However, the cross-departmental interaction obviously varied in different periods and regions (even showed as conflict sometimes), and was synchronized with the dynamic trade-off between economic and environmental targets of China. This research helps understand the inner logic of environmental governance of Chinese government, and can be valuable guidance for other countries to accomplish multi-departmental sustainable development goal.

The new mineral cuprozheshengite, Pb4CuZn2(AsO4)2(PO4)2(OH)2, from Yunnan, China, with site-selective As-P substitution

Abstract Cuprozheshengite, Pb4CuZn2(AsO4)2(PO4)2(OH)2, is a new mineral species from Yunnan, China. It occurs as sub-millimeter greenish-blue hemispherical aggregates of microscopic blade-like crystals on hemimorphite and is closely associated with veszelyite and galena. Cuprozheshengite is brittle with irregular fracture and has a Mohs hardness of 2½–3 and perfect cleavages on {011}. The calculated density is 5.91 g/cm3. The empirical chemical formula of the holotype is (Pb3.97Na0.04Ca0.01)Σ4.02Cu1.06 Zn2.09(AsO4)2[(P0.84As0.12Si0.01)Σ0.97O4]2(OH)2 based on 18 O atoms per formula unit. Cuprozheshengite is triclinic, space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a = 4.7977(8), b = 8.5789(8), c = 10.3855(9) Å, α = 97.270(8)°, β = 101.902(12)°, γ = 91.495(11)°, V = 414.30(9) Å3, and Z = 1. Cuprozheshengite is a member of dongchuanite group, whose general formula is A4VIBIVB2(X1O4)2(X2O4)2(OH)2, where A is an interlayer cation with Pb being dominant; B are transition metals with two crystallographic positions, IVB has tetrahedral coordination and is fully occupied by Zn, while VIB has octahedral coordination and is dominated by Zn or Cu; X1 and X2 are cations with tetrahedral coordination, occupied by As and P. Like other dongchuanite group minerals, the structural framework of cuprozheshengite is composed of two heteropolyhedral columns along [100]. Type 1 columns comprise corner-linked [IVBO4] and [X2O4] tetrahedra. Each tetrahedron is connected with three other tetrahedra in the columns. Type 2 columns have alternating [VIBO4(OH)2] octahedra with pairs of corner-connected [X1O4] tetrahedra. These two columns are connected by corner-sharing between [IVBO4] and [X1O4] tetrahedra to form layers parallel to (011). Pb atoms occupy two independent sites between the layers. Cuprozheshengite is named as the copper analog of zheshengite. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction reveals that As and P order over the X1 and X2 sites, with As tending to occupy X1. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm the occupancy propensity of As benefiting structural stability. The structural and stability studies of cuprozheshengite may have implications for local environmental governance. As a stable mineral in the water and elemental cycles after weathering, cuprozheshengite still has the potential to continually crystallize, fixing As into a stable crystalline waste form.

Environmental pollution and officials' promotion: How China's green attention matters

With the growing emphasis on sustainable development, green policies have become a crucial factor influencing both environmental pollution and the career progression of officials in China and other countries. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unclear. This paper aims to enhance the understanding of how environmental pollution impacts official promotion by analyzing the performance of provincial leaders in China and their incentives to address pollution. Using provincial panel data from 1998 to 2020 and a probit model, our study uncovers significant findings. We demonstrate that the intensified green attention by China's central government has notably reduced the promotion prospects for provincial officials with poor environmental protection records, particularly since 2013. Furthermore, our research extends the analysis of micro-level mechanisms, illustrating how the central government's political incentives effectively influence local environmental governance. This study underscores the central government's capability to leverage its personnel system to achieve desired outcomes in sustainable development.

Can the natural resource balance sheet system promote ecological civilization? --Empirical evidence from panel data of prefecture-level cities in China

As a crucial carrier of natural resource and environmental information, the natural resources balance sheet is important in enhancing ecological governance capabilities and advancing ecological civilization construction. Utilizing panel data from Chinese prefecture cities spanning 2012 to 2018, we employ a Difference-in-Differences (DID) model to examine the policy effects of the natural resources balance sheet system. The findings indicate that compiling the natural resources balance sheet significantly promotes local ecological civilization construction, and local government environmental governance efficiency partially mediates this relationship. Further analysis indicates that the outgoing audit of natural resources and public environmental concern positively moderates the relationship between the two. Drawing on the principal-agent theory, we provide in-depth analysis and elucidation of the mechanisms through which the natural resources balance sheet promotes ecological civilization construction, offering theoretical guidance and empirical data support for strengthening the compilation and application of the natural resources balance sheet.

The potential for local environmental governance: A case study of Natural Cambridgeshire

There are demands on land to provide a variety of ecosystem services alongside agricultural products. In the absence of markets, delivery is generally overseen through separate agencies. However, synergies and trade-offs amongst ecosystem services and variation across space lead to different priorities and opportunities in different areas. This creates a complex challenge for governance and implies a need to devolve decision-making.The objective of this paper is to explore the devolution of decision-making through the introduction of Local Environmental Governance Organisations (LEGO). A LEGO would assemble evidence on natural capital and co-ordinate stakeholders to identify local priorities. It would search for synergies and collaborative partnerships and raise funds to support priority actions.The paper first sets out a theoretical framework to identify the elements required for local governance. It then proposes two alternatives: a ‘national park’ approach for areas of higher environmental quality and a ‘local nature partnership’ approach elsewhere. The paper then provides a case study of Natural Cambridgeshire, a local nature partnership in England, as a potential LEGO, assessing the extent to which it meets the requirements identified. It has already done much to develop a stakeholder community and has begun to establish priorities for nature enhancement. However, it lacks programmes and long term funding that can incentivise the necessary actions or a forum that can bring together partners for Nature-based Solutions at scale.Central government would need to establish a framework for the operation of a system of LEGOs. It would also continue to support national standards.

Holding up a mirror: researching symmetrically to explore exclusion, othering and whiteness in local environmental governance

ABSTRACT The positioning of minoritised and racialised groups such as Global South immigrants as deficient in knowledge, language or motivation is a form of othering prevalent in all spheres of Global North societies, and the environmental sector is no exception. In both academic literature and policy, there is an assumption that minoritised groups are “hard to reach” and less interested in sustainability than the usual white middle-class environmental subjects. But, what might the picture look like if it focused on those who have the power to make choices about whose interests matter and whose can be ignored? By holding up a mirror to the powerful and asking them to reflect on their own practices and assumptions, we centre the operation of structural inequality to show that the lack of inclusivity in sustainability policy is very often a product of structural whiteness rather than the deficiencies of racialised communities. This article draws on interviews with key informants involved in local environmental governance to explore how people in positions of power serve to obstruct, erase or facilitate the engagement of racialised communities in activities relevant for environmental change. We argue that a symmetrical approach to research and analysis is needed to avoid othering immigrants while surfacing whiteness as the context in which othering occurs. We call for greater attention to how white structural advantage shapes the design and implementation of local green agendas in order to develop just and transformative approaches to environmental policy-making.

Environmental regulations and charitable donations made by polluting companies: Evidence from China

Using a quasi-natural experiment on the adjustment of sulfur dioxide emission levy standards by provinces in China from 2007 to 2014, we apply a difference-in-differences method to examine how stricter environmental regulations affect charitable donations made by polluting companies. Empirical results show that the increase in pollution levy standards increases corporate donations by 0.505%, implying that polluting companies use charitable donations as a strategic action to address the negative impact of environmental penalties. We also find that the political connection, local environmental governance preference, public image and corporate social responsibility strategies significantly affect the relationship between environmental regulations and donations of polluters.

Can innovation factor agglomeration enhance the government’s environmental governance capacity?

Innovative manpower agglomeration and innovative capital agglomeration provide vitality and guarantees for a country to achieve high-quality development, and the improvement of the government's environmental governance capacity can guarantee the smooth advancement of the country's ecological civilization construction work; thus, it is very important to study the impact of innovation factor agglomeration on the government's environmental governance capacity. Based on this, this article establishes a mediated moderating effect model and a spatial econometric model, adopts the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020 as an example, and divides innovation factor agglomeration into innovation manpower agglomeration and innovation capital agglomeration to study the relationship between them and the government's environmental governance capacity. The results of the empirical analysis show that (1) both innovation manpower agglomeration and innovation capital agglomeration can significantly promote the improvement of the government's environmental governance capacity. (2) Technological innovation plays a mediating role in promoting the government's environmental governance capacity through innovation factor agglomeration. Voluntary environmental regulation can promote the government's environmental governance capacity, but it attenuates the role of innovation capital agglomeration in promoting the government's environmental governance capacity. (3) Local innovative manpower agglomeration has a significant spillover effect, and innovative manpower agglomeration in neighboring places inhibits the enhancement of local governments’ environmental governance capacity. (4) Innovation capital agglomeration in neighboring places will inhibit the local government's environmental governance capacity, but its effect is much smaller than the promotion effect of local innovation capital agglomeration on the government's environmental governance capacity.

New way out of efficiency-equity dilemma: Digital technology empowerment for local government environmental governance

Getting out of the dilemma of incompatibility between efficiency and equity is an important goal of local government to modernize their environmental governance. Based on the theory of public value management, this paper constructs an analytical framework for digital technology enabled government environmental governance under the perspectives of efficiency, equity and coupling of the two, then empirically examines the impact and mechanism. The results show that digital technology can enhance efficiency and equity of local government environmental governance. Meanwhile, digital technology is an effective way to solve conflict between efficiency and equity values, but its green effect may be weakened in the short term due to uncertainty risks of internet. Education can strengthen green effect of digital technology, and digital dividend is especially beneficial when years of education has reached a certain threshold. In addition, there are heterogeneity and spatial correlation in digital technology to improve local government environmental governance. Finally, the results of mechanism test show that digital technology realizes enabling effect through three paths: industrial structure optimization effect, social public participation effect and innovation and entrepreneurship effect. The findings of this paper enrich research literatures on government environmental governance empowered by digital technology, and also provide useful references for formulation and implementation of government environmental policies under the new development pattern.

Challenging the nexus of power: The gaming dilemma of collaboration between government and enterprises in environmental management

This study presents a novel approach to analysing environmental governance by Chinese governments through the lens of a tripartite evolutionary game model. The key novelty of our research lies in the explicit incorporation of a reputation mechanism into the evolutionary game analysis, which significantly influences government decision-making, environmental governance strategies, and the dynamics of the relationship between government and polluting enterprises. By assessing the marginal effects of conventional governance and mobilization-based governance on the environmental mechanism, as well as the collusion behaviours between government and polluting enterprises, our study sheds light on previously unexplored aspects of environmental governance. Our findings indicate that the reputation mechanism plays a crucial role within the evolutionary game system of environmental governance, exerting a substantial impact on government decision-making. Furthermore, we demonstrate that policy interventions, such as increasing the cost of penalties under regulatory policies, can encourage compliance strategies among enterprises. Additionally, our research highlights the high sensitivity of reputation signals towards local government's environmental governance strategies, directly impacting their credibility and influencing the adoption of proactive environmental governance strategies. Moreover, we emphasize the role of the central environmental inspection system as a means to facilitate the transmission of environmental governance pressures between central and local governments, ultimately fostering a green development concept and promoting coordinated development between the economy and ecological civilization. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the intricacies of environmental governance in China and underscores the importance of reputation mechanisms and policy interventions in promoting sustainable development.

How does central-local interaction affect local environmental governance? Insights from the transformation of central environmental protection inspection in China

In recent years, one of the most important and innovative policy initiatives introduced by the Chinese government in the field of environmental protection and ecological civilization construction is the Central Environmental Protection Inspection (CEPI). CEPI is seen as a vital tool to encourage local implementation of environmental protection responsibility. Over the course of its operation (eight years), CEPI has transformed from the “campaign” phase to the “convention” phase. It is noted that while provincial governments face a common high-pressure environment created by CEPI, governance scenarios, behaviors, and performance vary across the country significantly. To better understand local governments' environmental governance behaviors under the transformation of CEPI, an integrated analysis framework consisting of two key elements, “central dominance” and “local proactiveness”, is constructed based on the central-local interactions under the principal-agent model. Based on this framework, we conducted a multi-case comparative analysis of four classic cases, with the following findings. (1) Along with the operation of CEPI and its transformation, the interaction between the central and local governments leads to four governance scenarios: “control-active cooperation”, “control-passive cooperation”, “guidance-active promotion”, and “guidance-passive promotion”. (2) Influenced by various factors such as pressure by the central government, local governments' capabilities and governance motivations, local governments form governance behaviors with varying degrees of proactiveness and autonomy. (3) After examining the governance performance of varying behaviors, it is found that local government's “active promotion” behavior can achieve higher governance effectiveness in the “convention” phase. Therefore, it is of policy implication that local governments should be guided to transit from “passive cooperation” to “active promotion”. This paper has important guiding significance for understanding local environmental governance behaviors under strong top-down institutional pressure.

Compliance relationship analysis between environmental governance attention and environmental quality in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region

This study analyzes the changes and allocation characteristics of environmental governance attention in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region based on the government work report from 2002 to 2020 and explores the compliance relationship between environmental governance attention and environmental quality. The results show that the allocation of local government environmental governance attention shows high consistency with that of the central government, and the overall environmental governance attention shows a fluctuating upward trend. There is a long-term stable co-integrated relationship between environmental governance attention and environmental quality in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, as well as a two-way Granger causality relationship in the short term. The non-linear influence of environmental governance attention on the environmental quality in the Beijing–Hebei–Tianjin region can be described using the LSTR2 model. During 2004–2016, environmental governance attention often had non-linear effects on the environmental quality. Since 2016, there has been a stable linear relationship between environmental governance attention and environmental quality. Finally, some policy suggestions on improving the local performance evaluation system and establishing a collaborative environment system for the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region have been put forward for the government.

Taking a back seat: the politicization of municipal environmental governance in South Africa

ABSTRACT Local government (LG) in South Africa (SA) is mandated to provide adequate service delivery and to ensure environmental protection within municipal boundaries. Local Environmental Governance (EG) is influenced by the actions of municipal councils and political leadership, resulting in politicized local EG. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has been gradually losing political power since 1994, and corruption and unprofessionalism in LG have increased and influenced EG. Limited scholars have attempted to examine the in-depth relationship between political dynamics, environmental issues and local municipalities within the political−administrative interface in SA. To address this, we utilize a Political Ecology Approach (PEA) to assess the influence of political dynamics on local EG in the uMzinyathi district and Endumeni local municipalities in SA. A mixed methods approach was utilised. The findings revealed that political dynamics both enabled and impeded local EG. While mainstreaming and alignment to national policy were evident, EG interventions and environmental resources were often co-opted for political canvassing and incentivization, or the relative prioritization of EG was dependent on political mandates. The research contributed to a detailed understanding of how EG ‘takes a back seat’ to political exigencies within a predominately fragile and under functioning LG sphere in SA.