Environmental monitoring and enforcement in China: an economic perspective review

ABSTRACT

Over the past two decades, China has actively engaged in pollution prevention and control efforts amidst growing environmental challenges. This review aims to provide an overview of China’s historical milestones, current status, and evolving trends in environmental monitoring and enforcement, and findings in the recent literature. Despite persistent issues in enforcement and compliance, China has been making significant strides in tackling environmental challenges by adapting its institutions, designing effective policies, and leveraging technological advancements. Overall, this review underscores the importance of continued efforts to address environmental challenges in China and provides implications for developing countries in environmental monitoring and enforcement practices. The review also explores the emerging opportunities in policy and research in this domain.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental regulations
• environmental monitoring
• pollution control
• China

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• K32
• Q53
• Q58
• R11

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Guangzhou-HKUST(GZ) Joint Funding Scheme [2023A03J0675] by the Guangzhou Science and Technology Department and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou).