Public Participation In Environmental Governance Research Articles

How to Enhance Public Participation in Environmental Governance? Evidence from China

Public participation in environmental governance plays a pivotal role in fostering a healthy and sustainable relationship between society and the environment. Despite the convenience afforded by the internet, the level of participation among Chinese citizens remains notably low. Thus, enhancing public enthusiasm for environmental governance is imperative, particularly given the paucity of academic research in this area. To address this gap, we employed the volume of messages on a leadership message board as a proxy for measuring the motivation behind public participation in environmental governance. Utilizing a provincial panel regression analysis, we investigated the determinants of public participation and subsequently conducted a mechanism analysis. Our findings reveal that deteriorating local air quality correlates with heightened motivation for public involvement in environmental governance. Additionally, increased public attention to environmental issues significantly amplifies this motivation, with the availability of internet access and the degree of emphasis placed by local governments on public participation further facilitating this process. This study contributes a theoretical and empirical foundation for enhancing public engagement in environmental governance, thereby fostering the development of a sustainable society.

Research on the driving factors of rural residents' pro-environmental behavior under the background of frequent heat waves

Heat wave events have frequently occurred worldwide in recent years, and continuous high temperatures have severely impacted human life and ecosystems. Given this problem, the government and the public must cooperate closely to participate in global environmental governance. Among them, pro-environmental behavior is the most significant form for citizens to participate in environmental protection and fulfill social responsibilities. It plays an essential role in mitigating extremely high temperatures worldwide and achieving "carbon neutrality" and sustainable development of the world environment. Based on this, the study utilized the field survey data of 554 respondents from 14 villages in Xi'an and applied a structural equation model that integrates the theory of planned behavior and protection motivation theory to identify the main determinants of the pro-environmental behavior of rural dwellers. The research reported that: 1) The integrated model of the theory of planned behavior and protection motivation theory is suitable for studying people's pro-environmental behavior in the context of heat waves. 2) Heat risk perception, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and subjective norms significantly improved rural residents' pro-environmental behavior. In contrast, response cost had an opposite negative impact on rural residents' pro-environmental behavior. Among them, subjective norms had the most considerable effect. Based on these, we recommend that local governments promote public participation in environmental governance through the following methods: 1) Strengthen the publicity and education of heat wave knowledge and improve public awareness of heat wave risks. 2) Increase investment in environmental protection facilities and reward the public for environmental protection behavior to reduce the cost of the public's pro-environmental behavior. 3) Give full play to the leading role of government cadres and improve the public's awareness of environmental protection through the impact of the social environment.

The impact of public participation in environmental governance on the technical efficiency of enterprise

This paper investigates the impact of public participation in environmental governance on the technical efficiency at the firm-level. Using the stochastic frontier method to measure the technological efficiency, we find that the average technical efficiency of enterprises has gradually increased, and the distribution of technical efficiency of enterprises varies by region. We further show that public participation in environmental governance can significantly improve enterprises’ technical efficiency. Finally, the heterogeneity analysis shows that our findings are more pronounced in state-owned firms and small firms.

Corporate green technology innovation under external pressure: a public and media perspective

The presence of external environmental constraints has the potential to impact corporate decision-making behavior regarding production and spur innovative activities. This study focuses on a sample of Chinese A-share-listed corporations to investigate the influence of public environmental concerns (PEC) on corporate green technology innovation (GTI) within the framework of public participation in environmental governance. Moreover, this study explores the synergistic effects of media concerns and PEC. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) PEC is a driving force for corporate GTI. Endogeneity and robustness tests support this finding. (2) Government environmental regulation and corporate environmental responsibility are critical mediating variables. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that PEC significantly impacts the GTI of state-owned corporations, high-tech corporations, and corporations that have obtained ISO 14001 certification. (4) Media concerns enhance GTI and exhibit a strong synergistic effect with PEC. Positive media news strengthens the “incentive effect” of PEC, while negative news plays a “pushing role.” This study provides theoretical and empirical support for constructing an environmental governance mechanism for the public, media, corporations, and government.

The impact of public environmental concern on environmental pollution: The moderating effect of government environmental regulation.

As environmental problems continue to intensify, public environmental awareness and participation have become key forces in a modernized environmental governance system. Recognizing the importance of public participation in environmental governance, this study explores the influence of public pressure on environmental pollution and its implications for China's long-term environmental management efforts. Using statistical and internet search data from 284 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2020, the study finds that a 1% increase in public environmental concern leads to a 0.009% reduction in pollution. The study also highlights the strengthening effect of government environmental regulation on the impact of public environmental concern. Moreover, regional heterogeneity analysis reveals a stronger effect of public environmental concern in cities facing low economic pressure. The findings of the study provide a reference for the construction of a coordinated and sustainable environmental governance model in China as well as in developing countries.

A public participation approach in the environmental governance of industrial parks

Public participation in environmental governance is crucial for sustainable development in industrial parks. The present study employs grounded theory to analyze the complete process of public participation in environmental governance within China's S Industrial Park. Specifically, this study investigates the reasons for public's absence in environmental management and identifies the strategies for achieving sustainable and effective participation. We found that lack of institutional guarantee systems and insufficient ability of public hinder public participation, while interest and institutional space motivate public participation. To achieve sustained and effective participation, a multi-stakeholder environmental governance platform is necessary. We also strategies for enhancing participation, including forming mutually beneficial relationship, promoting community organizations, and encouraging information disclosure.

The relationship between public participation in environmental governance and corporations’ environmental violations

We explore the relationship in China between public participation in environmental governance and corporations’ environmental violations. We do so by collecting data on unlisted corporations’ environmental violations from 2012 to 2015 and manually matching these data with the number of environment-related proposals made by People's Congress deputies of different provinces. We find that public participation in environmental governance significantly decreases the number of environmental violations by corporations. We use the Eco-environmental Credit Policy as a policy shock in a difference-in-differences regression to confirm our finding. We conclude that public participation in environmental governance increases the number of local environmental regulations and thus restrains environmental violations by corporations.

Is environmental tax legislation effective for pollution abatement in emerging economies? Evidence from China

This study estimates the effect of environmental tax legislation on air pollution, using the implementation of China’s Environmental Protection Tax Law (EPTL) as a quasi-natural experiment. For cities which have been authorized to raise tax rates by the EPTL, the air quality index (AQI) is 2.36 lower after the reform. The effect is reinforced in cities with stricter tax enforcement, lower fiscal stress, as well as higher initial pollution levels. Heterogeneity analyses show that the reform is more effective in cities with lower levels of marketization and legalization, as well as in developed cities. In addition, the impact of the reform is more significant in cities with higher levels of public participation in environmental governance, higher tax competition levels, and higher share of secondary industry. A series of robustness tests corroborates the results. This paper provides evidence that environmental tax legislation is efficacious in pollution abatement for developing economies.

A Study on the Impact of Organizing Environmental Awareness and Education on the Performance of Environmental Governance in China.

The advancement of technology and economic development has raised the standard of living and at the same time brought a greater burden to the environment. Environmental governance has become a common concern around the world, and although China’s environmental governance has achieved some success, it is still a long way from the ultimate goal. This paper empirically analyzes the impact of environmental publicity and education on environmental governance performance, using public participation as a mediator. The results show that: the direct effect of environmental publicity and education on environmental governance performance is not significant; environmental publicity and education have a significant positive effect on public participation; public participation significantly contributes to environmental governance performance; public participation shows a good mediating effect between environmental publicity and education and environmental governance performance. The government should adopt diversified environmental protection publicity and education in future environmental governance, and vigorously promote public participation in environmental governance so that the goal of environmental governance can be fundamentally accomplished by all people.

Government responsive selectivity and public limited mediation role in air pollution governance: Evidence from large scale text data content mining

Social media has been widely discussed as an informal way for the public to present their environmental appeals. However, evidence on whether and how the government's decision-making will take the public in the non-Western electoral system under consideration remains limited. In this study, we extracted 9.25 million haze-related posts from Sina Weibo and analyzed the topics using the latent Dirichlet allocation topic model. Furthermore, we provide evidence of the Chinese governments’ responsiveness and the role of online public participation in environmental governance. The results show that the Chinese government responds to the public, both online and offline. Specifically, when online public appeal increases by 1%, the local government's posts on social media increase by 0.347%, and investment and regulations increase by 0.0676% and 0.074%, respectively, in the next phase. However, there are selective characteristics of government response: the local government is more concerned about its “political achievements” than undertaking “governance responsibility.” Furthermore, online public participation plays a minor role in the implementation of regulations.

Influence mechanisms of the National Pollution Source Census on public participation and environmental consciousness in China

The National Pollution Source Census has been conducted in China to strengthen environmental supervision and management while mobilizing the public to participate in census work. Public participation usually plays an important role in environmental governance, but its development in China is relatively inadequate at present. However, the implementation of the National Pollution Source Census has created favorable conditions for promoting public participation. To explore the influence of the National Pollution Source Census on public participation, we conducted a nationwide questionnaire-based survey, recording the public's perceptions and behaviors related to environmental issues following the census. Structural equation modeling and logistic regression were conducted to analyze the data. The main findings indicate the following. First, the implementation of the National Pollution Source Census has had a strong positive impact on environmental consciousness, which, in turn, has had a positive effect on public participation. Environmental consciousness plays a fully mediating role in the relationship between the implementation of the National Pollution Source Census and public participation. Second, among the measurement indicators of the implementation of the National Pollution Source Census, environmental information disclosure, the extent of the popularization of environmental pollution knowledge, media-based publicizing of the significance of pollution source censuses, and the legislation-driven establishment of channels for public participation have a significant positive impact on environmental consciousness and public participation. Third, demographic characteristics such as the age and income of the public further affect their environmental consciousness and participation in environmental governance activities. • Implementing the NPSC strongly improves public's environmental consciousness (EC). • EC positively affects public participation (PP) in environmental governance. • China's NPSC has a strong positive impact on PP via EC's mediating effect. • Info disclosure promotes public EC and motivates PP in environmental governance. • Public's age and income significantly affect their EC and PP in environmental governance.

Incorporating spatial effects to assess the impact of public participation in environmental governance on PM2.5 pollution reduction: evidence from China

Incorporating spatial effects to assess the impact of public participation in environmental governance on PM2.5 pollution reduction: evidence from China

Research on Citizen Participation in Government Ecological Environment Governance Based on the Research Perspective of "Dual Carbon Target".

As the people's demand for a better life is getting higher and higher, citizens' requirements for the rural ecological environment are also constantly improving. At present, the deterioration of many rural environments and the cross-flow of sewage have brought great challenges to the governance of the rural ecological environment. Therefore, the improvement in the ability and level of rural ecological environment governance is the key to winning the battle of rural ecological environment governance, and the participation of citizens in rural ecological environment governance is even more crucial to the improvement in the ability and level of rural ecological environment governance. At present, academic achievements on rural ecological environment governance are increasingly enriched, but there are few academic achievements on rural ecological environment governance from the perspective of citizen participation. Since public participation in ecological environment governance is still in the initial stage of development, there are many factors that affect the effective implementation and development of public participation in the ecological environment. For example, various factors such as the imperfect legal system related to citizens' participation in rural ecological environment governance, weak awareness of citizen participation, and difficulty in determining the methods of citizen participation seriously hinder citizens' participation. Improve the theme awareness and ability of citizens to participate in ecological environment governance and to improve the citizen participation mechanism in my country's rural ecological environment governance. By analyzing and discussing the problems and countermeasures of public participation in environmental governance in my country, it is of positive significance to promote citizens' participation in ecological environmental governance.

How can public participation improve environmental governance in China? A policy simulation approach with multi-player evolutionary game

This study explores how public participation can help reshape environmental governance in China. As China is committed to constructing an ecological civilization, a new participatory mechanism has become necessary for promoting environmental democracy. A non-cooperative tripartite evolutionary game is employed to model the dynamic strategy interactions among local governments, polluting enterprises, and the public for participatory governance. A new mechanism design for public participation is proposed to accomplish cooperative evolutionary equilibrium. Simulations show that with adequate support, public monitoring and activism can help release local governments' supervision burden while still being able to reach the desired outcome. Public participation benefits cooperative equilibrium by reducing governance costs and improving policy flexibility, especially when long-term aspirations of reputational effects and environmental tax reform are embraced. Strong support and ensured independence are crucial for unleashing the full power of public participation in environmental governance. From a methodology perspective, policy simulation in an evolutionary game framework represents a novel addition to the research toolbox for policy studies.

Climate change, neoauthoritarianism, necropolitics, and state failure: the Duterte regime in the Philippines

ABSTRACT The Philippines is vulnerable to climate change and the natural hazards it has enhanced. The Philippines lacks peace, suffers from weak state institutions, and is a fragile state. Since 2016 President Rodrigo Duterte has embarked upon a war on drugs, claiming thousands of lives. This war on drugs is perceived to be a pretext for the establishment of an authoritarian government. The confluence of weak state institutions, a disregard for human rights, and weak public participation in environmental governance generates difficulty for coping with climate change in the Philippines. The intersection of climate change and state weakness is found in the violation of the human rights of environmentalists and the Philippines is among the leading countries in the world in terms of the number of environmentalists killed.

Benefits and costs of campaign-style environmental implementation: evidence from China's central environmental protection inspection system.

Campaign-style environmental implementation (CEI) is widely exerted in environmental protection, while its benefits and costs are controversial. We take advantage of the Central Environmental Protection Inspection (CEPI) System-a latest and distinguished form of CEI launched by China in 2016, as a quasi-natural experiment, to compare the benefits and costs of CEI based on water pollution effect estimates. Our results based on the annual panel data from 500 cities during 2009-2018 show that CEPI significantly reduced water pollution by an average of 20.7%. Further cost-benefit analysis based on the estimates of water pollution reduction shows that the potential health benefits of mortality and morbidity reduction resulting from CEPI are at least $12.26 billion, without bearing additional economic costs. We also explore why CEPI is cost-effective and find that CEPI reduces water pollution and becomes cost-effective mainly through deterring local officials, punishing polluting enterprises, and increasing public participation in environmental governance.

Building Capacity for Action-Oriented Research in Arizona’s Helium Extraction Boom

Northeast Arizona’s Holbrook Basin is an epicenter in the rush to secure new helium deposits in the U.S. While the helium boom has revealed unease amongst residents, significant knowledge and procedural gaps have prevented the public from making sense of the industry and its potential impacts. These gaps are produced by the opacity of critical minerals extraction, long-term regulatory neglect, and lack of commitments to public participation in environmental governance. However, we suggest that engaged STS scholarship can meaningfully assist at-risk communities in navigating these complexities. This is illustrated in a series of workshops developed by STS researchers and residents for the purpose of building local capacity for independent research and knowledge production. We detail the mutual affordances of these workshops and offer a potentially replicable framework: The Capabilities Model for Social Learning in Engaged STS. We conclude by arguing that this model is a useful lens for examining how STS critical thinking can be leveraged in collaborative research to pursue long-term social change.

How Do Environmental Concerns and Governance Performance Affect Public Environmental Participation: A Case Study of Waste Sorting in Urban China.

Environmental pollution threatens public health and has become a social concern in recent years. Despite the conditions for public participation in environmental governance have improved considerably, the level of public engagement in government projects still falls short of expectations. Therefore, this article introduced two key variables, hoping to answer the following research question that how environmental concerns and governance performance affect public environmental participation. Through principal component analysis of the data from the “Survey of Chinese Urban Residents’ Attitudes toward Environmental Protection”, the findings of this article are as follows: First, public environmental concerns have no significant impact on their environmental engagement; second, the improvement of residents’ confidence in the government performance of environmental management reduces their willingness to participate in official projects. The higher the confidence in the government’s performance, the lower the level of public engagement is. Moreover, due to the consideration of self-interest or lack of environmental awareness, those who oppose waste incineration in waste terminal disposal tend to take a non-participatory role in waste sorting programs. Therefore, we suggest that the government have more diverse shareholders in environmental protection, so it should expand public participation through education, publicity, mobilization, and incentives.

Effects of public participation on environmental governance in China: A spatial Durbin econometric analysis

Industrial pollution caused by China's rapid urbanization and industrialization is a serious threat to the ecological environment and human health, which stimulates public appeals for better environmental quality and public participation in regional environmental governance. Hence, using panel data of 30 Chinese provinces during 1999–2015, this study explores the effect of public participation on environmental governance based on the spatial Durbin econometric model. The results reveal that there is a negative spatial correlation in environmental governance among regions, that is, the increase in environmental governance in one region reduces the environmental governance in neighboring regions. Meanwhile, public participation has positive local and spillover effects on expenditure-based and revenue-based environmental governance, which promotes environmental governance expenditures and benefits in local and neighboring areas. However, the spatial spillover effect of public participation on environmental governance is only significant within 900 km and decreases with increasing geographic distance within this range. In addition, the roles of public behavior participation and public policy participation on environmental governance are mutually replaceable, and the improvement of the other can strengthen local and spillover effects of public participation on environmental governance when one of them remains unchanged. To achieve high-quality green development, the Chinese government should broaden the channels for public participation in environmental governance, improve the environmental protection assessment system, and deepen cross-regional pollution control cooperation mechanisms.

Explaining Public Participation in Environmental Governance in China

This article uses nationwide survey data to answer two questions: who participates in environmental governance in China and why? First it explores the social structural characteristics that distinguish participants, finding that city dwellers, the more educated and those with higher incomes and higher social status are more likely to participate, while women, the elderly, those with rural residence registration and migrants are less likely. It then tests two main explanations as to why people participate in environmental governance: instrumentality and identity. Participation is associated with attention to conservation issues, the perceived effectiveness of local environmental governance, knowledge of environmental problems, reading newspapers and magazines, voting in local elections, identification with a middle-class lifestyle and observance of Western holidays. Combining the analyses into a structural model shows that instrumental and identity-related variables account for nearly all of the social structural variation in participation. Participation is thus a function both of instrumental considerations and identities.