Does the Central Environmental Protection Inspectorate Accountability System Improve Environmental Quality?

Can Government Environmental Auditing Help to Improve Environmental Quality? Evidence from China

Promoting environmental governance to achieve green and low-carbon development is the focus of attention from all walks of life. As a policy tool to control environmental pollution, the effectiveness of environmental audits remains to be verified. Based on China's provincial data from 2004 to 2019, this paper aims to examine the impact and mechanisms of government environmental auditing on environmental quality. Results show that government environmental auditing helps to improve overall environmental quality, but there is a certain lag effect occurring. The heterogeneity test suggests that the impact of environmental auditing on comprehensive environmental quality is more significant when the government competition is smaller, the financial situation is better, and the institutional environment is weaker. Our analysis provides empirical evidence for understanding the role and function of government environmental auditing in environmental governance.

Does vertical supervision promote regional green transformation? Evidence from Central Environmental Protection Inspection

Vertical supervision is an important institutional arrangement designed to overcome the challenges of environmental governance and promotion of green development in the region. Based on the panel data of 278 cities in China from 2010 to 2018, we use Central Environmental Protection Inspection (CEPI) as an exogenous policy and the multi-period Difference-in-Differences method to test the role of vertical supervision in promoting regional green transformation. Our findings indicate that CEPI, a typical vertical supervision policy, effectively promotes green transformation regionally by reducing local pollution emissions and improving total factor productivity. The analysis of mechanism shows that local governments mainly promote regional green transformation by increasing the investment in pollutant governance, research and development in green technologies, and updating fixed assets. Our study provides a valuable reference for the implementation of vertical supervision policies and effective governance of local governments by the central government.

Empirical analysis of the role of the environmental accountability system in energy conservation and emission reduction in China

Many developing countries are facing the difficulty of choosing between economic growth and energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER). China has strengthened the implementation of ECER by setting environmental accountability as the development goal of local governments, hoping to have better governance effects. To evaluate the actual intervention effect of this approach, this paper constructs panel data covering 46 countries from 1995 to 2014 and uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the composite control method to quantitatively analyse the policy effect. The results show that China can effectively curb energy consumption and carbon emission intensity per unit of GDP by adding ECER targets to the government’s five-year plan, which has significant effects on ECER. Furthermore, we use an intermediary mechanism to test and identify low-carbon alternatives and an ECER promotion mechanism for technological advancement. The conclusion shows that economic development is compatible with low carbon and energy consumption. Combined with China’s long-term goals for ECER, it can be considered that on the road to achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the future, the economy and tertiary industry should be rationally developed, the degree of urbanization should receive more attention, and the proportion of thermal power generation should be reduced.