Understanding Individual Environmental Concern in the Context of Local Environmental Governance in China: A Multi-Level Analysis

Abstract

A growing literature has examined the contextual effect of governance on public environmental concern, but most were conducted in a cross-national context. This article investigates the effects of local-level governance on individual environmental concern in China, where environmental governance follows a top-down, non-participatory approach. We compiled a city-level database capturing local participation in sustainability-related policy experimentation and local budgetary expenditure on environmental protection. Combining this with the 2010 China General Social Survey (CGSS) data, multi-level modeling analysis revealed that citizens express stronger environmental concern living in a city more active in sustainability policies, but that the positive coefficient is significant for the urban sample but not for the rural sample. Policy experimentation related to urban livability – rather than ecological conservation – has a more significant impact on environmental concern. The results highlight governance as a contextual factor for understanding the determinants of individual environmental attitudes.

Keywords:

• China
• environmental concern
• environmental governance
• multi-level analysis

Notes

Notes

1 For instance, in the Low-Carbon Pilot City Program, the central government specifically included diversity in location as well as social and economic conditions as part of the selection criteria. By contrast, in the National Healthy City Program, the central government specified a series of performance standards that cities had to achieve to be eligible for the program.

2 For instance, in the National Forest City Program, the central government specifically required all participating cities to initiate propaganda campaigns – such as installing bulletin boards for public education or organizing tree-planting activities – to promote the idea of ecological conservation.

3 Refer to http://cgss.ruc.edu.cn/index.php?r=index/sample for the sampling design for the 2010 CGSS.

4 These four cities are En-Shi, Hubei Province; Da-Li, Yunnan Province; Lhasa, Tibet, and Kashgar, Xinjiang Province.

5 Odds ratio = exp (β). When β = 0.112, odds ratio = exp (0.112) = 1.131.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 71403143, 41571153], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the Research Funds of Renmin University of China [No. 14XNJ020]. This research was also funded by the Tsinghua University Research Center for Green Economy and Sustainable Development sponsored by the Volvo Group [No. 20153000181] and the Dissertation Scholarship Program by the Peking University-Lincoln Institute Joint Center for Urban Development and Land Policy.