Role of Law, Position of Actor and Linkage of Policy in China’s National Environmental Governance System, 1972–2016
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. China’s National Environmental Governance System
2.1. Environmental Laws
2.2. Environmental Policy Instruments
- (1) Regulatory policy instruments
- (2) Market-based policy instruments
- (3) Voluntary policy instruments
- (4) Macro-level guiding policy instruments
2.3. Actors Involved in Environmental Governance
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results
4.1. Laws Create Windows of Opportunity for Policy Generation
4.2. Policies Activate Actors and Demarcate Issues
4.3. Actors and Issues Build Intentional and Emergent Bridges between Policies
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Year | Name of Law |
---|---|
The socialist period (1972–1978) | |
1977 | The Constitution of China was amended by writing: “the State protects the environment and natural resources against pollution and other damage” |
The economic reform period (1978–2000) | |
1979 | Environmental Protection Law (trial) |
1982 | Marine Environmental Protection Law |
1984 | Water Pollution Control Law |
1984 | Forest Law |
1986 | Mineral Resources Law |
1987 | Air Pollution Control Law |
1989 | Environmental Protection Law (formal) |
1990 | Soil and Water Conservation Law |
1995 | Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law |
1997 | Energy Conservation Law |
1998 | Forest Law (amendment) |
The rapid economic growth period (since 2000) | |
2000 | Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law (amendment) |
2001 | Sand Control Law |
2002 | Government Purchasing Law, which stipulates that environmentally friendly products have priority in governmental purchasing |
2002 | Clean Production Promotion Law |
2002 | Water Law |
2002 | Environmental Impact Assessment Law |
2004 | Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law (amendment) |
2005 | Renewable Energy Law |
2007 | Energy Saving Law (amendment) |
2008 | Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law (amendment) |
2008 | Circular Economy Promotion Law |
2014 | Environmental Protection Law (amendment), which proposes the strictest environmental pollution standards |
2015 | Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, which proposes the strictest air pollution standards |
2016 | Energy Saving Law (amendment) |
Actor Name | Actor Responsibility |
---|---|
National People’s Congress (NPG) | Enacting environmental laws. |
State Council (SC) | Formulating macro-level national development plans and environmental regulations and guidance. |
Communist Party of China (CPC) | Setting environmental targets and controlling political personnel system in governmental organizations based on target performance. |
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) | Setting the right price for industry operation, and reconciling goals of economic development and environmental protection. |
Ministry of Environmental Protection (MoEP) | Preventing and controlling environmental pollution, protecting nature and ecology, safeguard environmental safety. |
Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction (MoHURC) | Conducting environmental impact assessment for construction projects. |
Ministry of Commerce (MoC) | Encouraging industries to innovate and apply environmental protection technologies, adopt cleaner production processes and promote green supply chain development. |
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MoIIT) | Encouraging industries to innovate and apply environmental protection technologies, adopt cleaner production processes and promote green supply chain development. |
Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) | Encouraging industries to innovate and apply environmental protection technologies, adopt cleaner production processes and promote green supply chain development. |
Ministry of Land and Resources (MoLR) | Resource protection and ecological compensation. |
National Energy Administration (NEA) | Promoting energy-saving and the usage of renewable energies. |
Ministry of Transport (MoT) | Reducing environmental pollution sourced from transportation and promoting new energy vehicles. |
General Administration of Quality Supervision (GAQS) | Giving support to the MoEP for the formulation of environmental quality standards. |
Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) | Giving support to the MoEP for the formulation of environmental quality standards. |
Ministry of Finance (MoF) | Providing financial incentives to enterprises to adopt environmental friendly products and processes. |
State Administration of Taxation (SAT) | Providing tax incentives to enterprises to adopt environmental friendly products and processes. |
Ministry of Supervision (MoS) | Holding public officials accountable for environmental enforcement and sanction. |
People’s Bank of China (PBC) | Providing financial incentives to enterprises, including green credit, green securities and environmental liability insurance. |
China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) | Providing financial incentives to enterprises, including green credit, green securities and environmental liability insurance. |
China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) | Providing financial incentives to enterprises, including green credit, green securities and environmental liability insurance. |
China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) | Providing financial incentives to enterprises, including green credit, green securities and environmental liability insurance. |
Research Questions | Analytical Approaches | Measurement Indicators | Indicative Patterns |
---|---|---|---|
How do environmental laws and policies evolve overtime? | Event graph | Qualitative description of an event; Directed edges between events. | The contents and sequence of the events indicate the evolutionary trajectory of environmental governance. |
What is the role of law in generating policies? | Event graph | Out-degree of a node: number of following events, to which an event may lead. | The higher the out-degree of a node (e.g., a piece of law), the more powerful the law is in generating policies. |
How do actors and issues evolve in environmental laws and policies overtime? | Two-mode network | Weight of an edge: frequency at which an actor deals with an issue. | The higher the frequency, an actor deals with an environmental issue more frequently. |
What is the position of actors in environmental governance? | Two-mode network | Betweenness centrality: a node with higher betweenness centrality would have more control over the network, because more information will pass through that node. | The higher the betweenness centrality, the actor is more important in environmental governance. |
How do environmental laws and policies are intentionally and emergently linked with one another? | Three-mode network | Number of intentional linkage (edge); Number of emergent linkage (edge); Qualitative description of an event. | The higher the number of emergent linkages, and the lower the number of intentional linkages, the environmental laws and policies are more fragmented. |
Notes on the measurement indicators: After loading the event data, the Gephi software may calculate the values of the indicators by built-in algorithm:
|
1980 | 1998 | 2016 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Betweenness Centrality | Name | Betweenness Centrality | Name | Betweenness Centrality | |
Top 5 most central actors | NDRC | 0 | MoEP | 1.333 | MoEP | 31.111 |
SC | 0 | NDRC | 1.333 | NDRC | 9.028 | |
MoHURC | 0 | SC | 1.333 | SC | 9.028 | |
MoHURC | 1.333 | MoF | 3.472 | |||
MoF | 1.333 | PBC | 1.250 | |||
Top 5 most central issues | construction | 50 | water | 5.275 | water | 0.850 |
water | 0 | construction | 5.275 | coal | 0.850 | |
charge | 0 | charge | 5.275 | charge | 0.850 | |
waste | 0 | waste | 5.275 | energy | 0.850 | |
standard | 0 | standard | 5.275 | carbon-trading | 0.850 | |
natural resource | 0.850 | |||||
eco-compensation | 0.850 | |||||
gov. purchase | 0.850 |
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Mu, R. Role of Law, Position of Actor and Linkage of Policy in China’s National Environmental Governance System, 1972–2016. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1065. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041065
Mu R. Role of Law, Position of Actor and Linkage of Policy in China’s National Environmental Governance System, 1972–2016. Sustainability. 2018; 10(4):1065. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041065
Chicago/Turabian StyleMu, Rui. 2018. "Role of Law, Position of Actor and Linkage of Policy in China’s National Environmental Governance System, 1972–2016" Sustainability 10, no. 4: 1065. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041065