Social Risk Response Of PPP Waste-to-energy Incineration Projects:Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Perspective

At the present stage,most cities in china are facing the problem of garbage siege.The waste treatment facilities are in short supply,and the existing clearance,transportation and innocent treatment capacity of Municipal Solid Waste(MSW)are far from meeting the requirements of creating a high-quality environment.Although Waste-To-Energy(WTE)incineration is the optimum disposal method,its site selection is controversial.Currently,the social risk response of PPP WTE incineration projects has been one of the hot spots in academic research.This paper summarizes the forms,influence factors and countermeasures of social risks in PPP WTE incineration projects through literature review,concluding that mass incidents have become the main forms of global social risks.In addition,perceived trust,perceived fairness and perceived risk are the main direct factors influencing the public acceptance of Not-In-My-Back-Yard(NIMBY)facilities(WTE PPP projects).Most of the existing researches focus on policy,economic,technological and social countermeasures,studies on NIMBY risk avoidance measures from environmental impact assessment(EIA)perspective are relatively few and have not been sufficient so far.The article integrates the factors affecting the quality of the EIA into procedural normalization,fairness of EIA institutions,accessibility of EIA information and effectiveness of public participation.Based on the analysis of the existing literature,the impact mechanism of EIA on WTE PPP projects has been obtained.for environmental impact assessment of waste incineration power generation influence mechanism of the PPP projects.Then,the research hypothesis is put forward:EIA affects public acceptance through positive or negative impacts on perceived trust,perceived fair and perceived risk,and both perceived trust and perceived fairness have negative impacts on perceived risk.In the empirical analysis phase,this study investigates the residents near Tianma MSW Terminal Disposal and Utilization Center in Shanghai,Jiangbei MSW Incineration Power Plant in Nanjing,Jiufeng MSW Incineration Power Plant in Hangzhou,and Mingzhou MSW Incineration Power Plant in Ningbo through questionnaire survey.The results of data analysis using Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)reveal that firstly,EIA has a significant positive impact on perceived trust and perceived fairness,and a significant negative impact on perceived risk.Both perceived trust and fairness have a significant negative impact on perceived risk.Secondly,perceived risk hasa significant negative impact on public acceptance,and perceived trust plays a significant role in promoting public acceptance of WTE PPP projects.Furthermore,the age and education level of the respondents have significant impacts on their acceptance,younger and highly educated people have higher acceptance than the older and low educated,while gender and distance from WTE facilities have no significant impact on their acceptance.Finally,through the analysis of the deficiencies of the current environmental impact assessment regulations,this paper provides reasonable policy recommendations for the social risk response of WTE PPP projects.