| How to deal with and understand the double governance failure caused by the externalities of environmental pollution and the dilemma of collective action is a practical problem and a theoretical proposition for the collaborative environmental governance between regions.The study of regional environmental collaborative governance not only helps to enrich the theory of regional governance,but also has important reference value for improving the modernization of China’s environmental governance system and governance capacity.This research constructs a CSDAO theoretical framework composed of five fundamental factors including Causes-Subjects-Dynamics-Actions-Outcomes（CSDAO）,and it answers systematically five basic questions of regional environmental collaborative governance such as why,who to collaborate,how to operate,how to collaborate,and what are the effects.The following six research conclusions are drawn.Firstly,collaborative governance is a suitable way to deal with the predicament of regional environmental cooperation dilemma.Regional environmental governance faces many major challenges.The externalities and free-riding,the deviation of individual rationality and collective rationality,and the vertical principal-agent and horizontal competition game between governments are the three theoretical causes of the predicament of regional environmental collaborative governance.Collaborative governance is one of the appropriate ways to deal with the predicament of regional environmental cooperation.However,its effectiveness is bounded and restricted.Secondly,the regional environmental collaborative governance system is a cyclic system and the governance mechanism has strong interaction.The regional environmental collaborative governance system is a cyclic system with five interacting elements:Causes,Subjects,Dynamics,Actions and Outcomes（CSDAO）.The regional environmental synergistic governance mechanism is an organic system including five mechanisms of organization,dynamics,operation,feedback and interaction.The components of the regional environmental synergistic system and mechanism have complex interactions with each other,which influenced and constrained by various factors.Thirdly,the evolution of environmental governance in China has a practical logic.In the past 70 years since the founding of People‘s Republic of China,our country‘s environmental governance has continued to advance through practical exploration and theoretical sublimation,learning from the outside while rooting in itself,and abandoning tradition while facing the future.China’s environmental governance has gone through a process from a loose to a tight linkage with the national governance system,accompanied with the early stage of its incubation to the later stage of its establishment.The evolution of China’s environmental governance follows the logics as followed.To meet the people’s needs for a better environment continuously,to move from prioritizing economic development to combining the environment and economy towards the green development,to incline more to an incentive and compatible path from the constraints and incentives bounded one,to evolve from a one administrative region to a multiple-region and from one subject to multiple subjects,constantly moving towards collaborative governance,and to move from learning to innovation while actively taking the responsibility for global environmental governance.In general,the evolution of environmental governance in China presents more of a practical logic,oriented to solving practical problems rather than an idealized theoretical logic.Furthermore,there are three basic patterns of regional environmental governance in China.The regional environmental collaborative governance pattern under specific time and space conditions is the product of both evolutionary rationality and constructive rationality.Therefore,it not only presents spontaneity embedded in institutions,culture and customs,but also features artificial design and induced purpose.The task-driven pattern among equitable regions,the authoritarian task-driven pattern among regions with superior involvement,and the equal pattern with multiple governance actors interacting with each other are the three types of regional environmental collaborative governance patterns in China,which in reality are represented by the air pollution collaborative governance in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the two stages before and after,and the environmental cooperation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong Cleaner Production Partnership Program,respectively.The three governance patterns feature differently in structures and characteristics.Although there is no value difference between the different governance patterns,there is a difference in the efficiency of governance.Moreover,the effect of collaborative governance has great differences in different regions and different environmental indicators.Using the time-varying DID method,it is closer to the reality that the timing of external shocks of environmental collaborative governance is not completely consistent.Monthly data of air quality index（AQI）and six sub-pollutants,including PM2.5,PM10,SO2,CO,NO2,and O3etc from 2013 to 2018,collecting from 73 cities are used.We empirically examine of the implementation effect of atmospheric collaborative governance.The results show that the collaborative environmental management actions in China have not significantly improved the comprehensive air quality index（AQI）at the national level,but have significantly reduced the concentration of the pollutant SO2,despite have not had a significant impact on the trends of the concentration of other five individual pollutants.The synergistic environmental management action has had a positive impact on the improvement of AQI and reduction of SO2 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,but not yet on the concentration of other five types of individual pollutants.The synergistic environmental management action has had a significant impact on the concentration of PM2.5,SO2,and CO in the Yangtze River Delta region.However,there has not had an impact on trends of the comprehensive air quality（AQI）,or the concentration of the other three individual pollutants.Therefore,it is necessary to take a scientific view on the characteristics of the impact of collaborative governance on the reduction of pollution levels such as time lag and the gradual weakening effect of the time trend,to objectively face the complexity and long-term nature of our country’s environmental quality improvement,and to maintain the patience so as to take the road of high-quality development that reflects both green development and coordinated development.Last but not least,regional environmental cooperative governance needs to deal with six kinds of basic relationships properly which is the relationship between environmental governance and national governance in the macroscopic view,the relationship between local management and cross-border governance in the applicable boundary,the relationship between government-led and pluralistic governance in the governance subject,the relationship between campaigning of modernization and mobilization of governance capacity,the relationship between task-based governance and regular governance in the governance characteristics,and the relationship between technical governance and institutional construction in the governance tools and values.All in all,there are six policy focuses for the improvement of China’s environmental governance system in the future.For example,a shift from administrative districts to watersheds and regions,to reform the setting units of environmental objectives and standards.To establish an assessment and feedback system for major environmental policies,and to form a circular operational system for collaborative governance.To construct a multi-faceted and interactive environmental governance system,and continuously promote the construction of modern governance mechanisms.To advance the incentive-compatible performance appraisal system,and to mobilize the enthusiasm of local governments and officials.To improve the governance policies of social organizations and to open up the channels of public participation.Enrich the diversity of governance tools and to highlight the innovation of governance tools. |
