Lingxuan Liu

Red and Green: Public Perception and Air Quality Information in Urban China

A lo ns o (h ttp :/ /w ei bo .c om /v bo y) Public environmental awareness, as one of the crucial driving forces for environmental improvement, relies on a well-informed society.1 For example, urban air pollution was a significant concern for both Europe2 and the United States3 during their urbanization, and now China steps into their position. In a study of the Chinese population, 42% of those surveyed were mostly concerned about either urban air pollution or its health effects.1 However, the ways to manage urban air quality through monitoring, information, and participatory approaches remains under discussion.4-6 Since the fall of 2011, the authors have observed a natural experiment in how the pubic reacts to pollution data that has evolved over time. The result has been increasing debates on the persistent smog and fine particulates (PM2.5) in urban China among the public, government, and media. Urban Air Quality and Environmental Information in China

Environmental incidents in China: Lessons from 2006 to 2015

Environmental incidents are among the most significant environmental challenges in China. Hundreds of environmental incidents occur every year, endangering human health and ecosystems. In this paper, we conducted an analytical study of environmental incidents from 2006 to 2015 in China. We first examined the spatiotemporal characteristics of the total 5213 incidents based on the statistical data collected from the China Statistical Yearbook on Environment. We then examined the characteristics of the sources of risk, causes of harm and resulting damage of environmental incidents based on first-hand data from 1369 cases collected by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) of China, which obtains detailed incident information. The results show that (1) there was a significant downward trend in the overall number of environmental incidents between 2006 and 2015, and developed eastern regions were high incidence areas; (2) hazardous chemicals were the main risk stressors; (3) production safety accidents and traffic accidents were the two major causes, and (4) most of these incidents resulted in polluted water and air. This paper is the first to provide a longitudinal analysis of the full scope of environmental incidents across the different regions of China, which has useful implications for policy-making and environmental management.

Environmental governance in China: Interactions between the state and “nonstate actors”

In the West, limited government capacity to solve environmental problems has triggered the rise of a variety of nonstate actors to supplement government efforts or provide alternative mechanisms for addressing environmental issues. How does this development - along with our efforts to understand it - map onto environmental governance processes in China? Chinas efforts to address environmental issues reflect institutionalized governance processes that differ from parallel western processes in ways that have major consequences for domestic environmental governance practices and the governance of China going abroad. Chinas governance processes blur the distinction between the state and other actors; the shadow of the state is a major factor in all efforts to address environmental issues. The space occupied by nonstate actors in western systems is occupied by shiye danwei (public service units), she hui tuanti (social associations) and e-platforms, all of which have close links to the state. Meanwhile, international NGOs and multinational corporations are also significant players in China. As a result, the mechanisms of influence that produce effects in China differ in important ways from mechanisms familiar from the western experience. This conclusion has far-reaching implications for those seeking to address global environmental concerns, given the importance of Chinas growing economy and burgeoning network of trade relationships.