Socioeconomic status, air pollution and desire for local environmental protection in China: insights from national survey data

Abstract

In 2014, Chinese leaders declared “war against pollution,” leaving local governments with considerable anti-pollution mandates – and, often, with the blame for insufficient implementation. There is a lack of large-scale systematic analyses of citizens’ preferences for environmental protection by relevant government levels and the social structuration of such attitudes. This article aims first to assess associations between desire for local government to improve environmental protection, and socioeconomic status and air pollution; second, to identify indirect associations mediated by citizens’ awareness of pollution. The research was based on nationally representative survey data from 2014. Results show the lowest occupational class as less likely than higher classes to mention environmental protection when asked which local government services should increase, but as likely to express environmental risk awareness. Policymakers should consider mechanisms such as social protection, inclusion and environmental justice to enhance local environmental policy desire among lower classes and facilitate effective environmental governance.

Keywords:

• China
• environmental policy preference
• environmental awareness
• socioeconomic status
• air pollution

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge colleagues involved in the project “Towards a new Chinese welfare state – perceptions about distributive justice in China” based at Fafo research foundation for producing the survey data used in this research and commenting on an early draft, and colleagues in the Airborne project based at University of Oslo for contributing insights that aided the analysis. The author wishes to give special thanks to Anna Ahlers at University of Oslo, Neil Munro at University of Glasgow, and five anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Norwegian Research Council under Grant Numbers 240060 and 225132; and by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.