The Evolution And Performance Of Policy Means Coordination On Energy Conservation And Emission Reduction From The Perspective Of Policy Quantitative

Since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, the Chinese government has formulated a large number of energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) policies. To study those policies, researchers have discussed the deficiencies and implementing difficulties, evaluated the results, analyzed the potential and cost of different policy circumstances and the policy welfare, looked for the optimal way of implementing policies, and even compare them with typical international cases, etc. All these have played a positive role in guiding the government to formulate ECER policies. Noticeably, the above researches mainly analyze the object, content, significance, effect, or orientation of some ECER policies of a certain kind, mostly at the logical analysis level, paying little attention to the coordination problem of ECER policies as well as the uncertainty and subjectivity of policy itself. Moreover, due to the fact that the ECER involve multiple areas, the ECER policies are beyond the boundary of a single policy area or a responsibility of an individual government department. Too much emphasize on utilizing a single type of policy means may have detrimental effects on the sustainable development of economy and the promotion of ECER. On the contrary, of the coordinated and comprehensive use of macroeconomic regulation and control tools is more effective. Therefore, the Chinese government should combine and coordinate different policy means in the process of ECER policy formulation in order to carry ECER forward. In addition, as the ECER becomes more stressful and policy performance environment increasingly complex, uncertain and random, how to enhance the coordination among different ECER policy means and how to reduce the hinder effects among them are bound to be one of the biggest challenges for governments and scholars. So, it is necessary to discuss the evolution and performance of coordination problems of ECER policy means from the perspective of the policy itself.Based on the theory of coordination and public policy and the definition of the ECER policy, this paper has collected the ECER policies in China from 1978 to 2013,and tries to propose the ECER policy quantitative criteria from policy power and policy means. In line with the quantitative criteria, the scoring staffs receive relevant training, and multi-round scoring the policies by different groups of staff is applied to quantify the ECER policy means. The quantitative data are then used to measure the coordination degree of ECER policy means. The paper also analyzes the coordination condition and evolution ways of policy means coordination, and discusses the influence of ECER policy means coordination on ECER results and economic growth. The research shows that since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, the Chinese government has formulated an increasing number of ECER policies, the coordination status of ECER policies is gradually strengthened and features the periodical growth, and the formulation of ECER policies involves many relevant departments from one single department in the past gradually; the ECER policies formulated by several departments feature low executive power and short executive period, and the environmental protection departments are not leaders but some other departments which control the economic and administrative resources; different ECER policy means have coordinated well, but the coordination status of different policy means is obviously various; the Chinese government gradually improves the coordination among the financial means, personnel means, fiscal and tax means, other economic means and administrative means as well as guiding means, and the coordination between administrative means and other means is the core of the coordinated means in ECER policy means coordination, and the ECER policies are also gradually shifting from relying on single means to comprehensive use of various means, to push forward ECER through policy means coordination; in the coordination of ECER policy means, the effect of different policy means coordination on the results of ECER is significantly different, the effect of different policy means coordination on the economic growth is also have a significant discrepancy in orientation; the Chinese government will gradually increase the use of various policy means coordination, but the coordination degree needs to be further optimized. Finally, this paper puts forwards some related suggestions on the policy-making of ECER in China as coordination of different policy means exerts different influence on the results of ECER and the economic growth.