Research On Dynamic Mechanism Of Regional Ecological Modernization

The UNEP Year Book 2013 noted that Natural resources are essential to meet humans basic needs. However, their exploitation has begun to exceed the Earth’s capacity. The scale of human activities is "eating into" the planet’s reserves. It is said that by the 2030s we may need the equivalent of two Earths to provide the resources we use and to absorb waste to maintain our current (The early twenty-first Century) lifestyles. The pressure Human activities have brought to the Earth has been a serious threat to the survival of mankind, the status quo that human obtain energy from the nature excessively must be changed as soon as possible, so to alleviate or eliminate the threat human facing.China has large population, relative scarcity of per capita resources, relative high energy consumption. According to statistics of China Environmental Protection Administration, the energy consumption per Million yuan GDP is as 3-11 times as the developed country, environmental cost per unit of GDP in the forefront of the world. Zhang Ping who was the former Director of State Development and Reform Commission pointed that energy consumption per Million yuan GDP of our country was as 2.2 times as the world average level. Although the intensity of energy consumption decreased compared with previous, the energy consumption is still high, the environmental is still serious, and the ecological environment is very fragile. The relative shortage of resources and high energy consumption per unit output increased dependence on foreign resources, restricted economic sustainable development, increased conflict between man and nature. Faced with this grim situation, traditional ecological modernization theory has been unable to resolve the plight caused by large industrial era. There are three main road in front of us:the first is to repeat the old road the western developed countries have experienced which is treatment after pollution; the second is the ecological transformation which the ecological modernization require, it is widely used in developed countries; the third is a comprehensive ecological modernization road, which is green industrialization, green urbanization and ecological modernization coordinately. Obviously, the third way is the best choice for us to seek sustainable development. The Chinese government is also aware of the urgency to solve the problems of ecological environment and the development of ecological modernization. The Third Plenary session of 18th central committee of the communist party of China pointed out, the development of an eco-conscious civilization must evolve around the building of a beautiful Chinese, speed up the establishment of ecological civilization system, improve the land space development, resource conservation, ecological and environmental protection systems and mechanisms to promote the modernization new pattern that man and nature develop harmoniously. This gives us a correct modern development path, we must combine our country’s present development condition, adopt the development strategy of environment friendly, take a comprehensive ecological modernization road, promote green industrialization, green urbanization and ecological modernization coordinately.In a sense, ecological modernization is modernization based on ecological civilization, inherit and break through the theory of sustainable development, and has strong adaptability for the construction of ecological civilization of China. Ecological modernization theory advocates that human should refer to natural ecological order, should maintain a sustainable balance in the protection and utilization of natural, should realize sustainable development based on interdependence and harmony between human society and the natural, ecological modernization advocates that human should not dominate the nature, should not attempt to control and plunder natural, but to learn and mimic the natural functioning mechanism to pursuit a win-win development between economic and environmental protection from the political, economic, social to daily life. Therefore, ecological modernization theory is a new development thinking. It always looks the ecological environment as an important variable and important content in the modernization process. And closely combines the development of economic growth and ecological environment, establishes scientific ecological and modern development values. It is in order to achieve win-win development between economic and environmental protection in a region, so to advance the process of ecological modernization. However, studies of ecological modernization are still in its infancy. Perspective of research mostly limited to the design and evaluation of ecological modernization indicators. Although the path, strategic objectives and measures to realize ecological modernization have been studied, mostly studies are limited to a macro perspective. The study on the realization mechanism of the regional ecological modernization of China is still less in using empirical model. By analyzing the literature and relevant theories, this paper discussed and deepened the regional ecological modernization theory. On this basis, we analyze the action strategies of ecological modernization actors by creatively using the evolutionary game theory. And deeply analyze the current situation of regional ecological modernization, implementation mechanism of regional ecological modernization of the power factor, path dependence and dynamic change of regional ecological modernization by using the relevant data, and get the following conclusions:First, we clear the dimensions space of ecological modernization, clarify the main agents of ecological modernization to achieve on the basis of combing ecological modernization theory. We divide ecological modernization dimension into economic modernization, social modernization, resources and environment modernization, space coordination modernization. We clarify the actors of achieving ecological modernization into government, market, business, society and non-governmental organizations, and draw a "tortoise’s back map" of ecological modernization’s actors, and analyze the role of actors in the realization of ecological modernization.Second, we analyze action strategies of the ecological modernization actors by using the evolutionary game theory. Analyze the consumer’s strategy selection and implement mechanism in the ecological products market. Consider that purchase decision of ecological products consumers will be affected by group behavior, consumers can not get all the information of ecological products. And only mimic the success of the consumer through a limited rational behavior, the more the herd, the more it can add other consumer’s purchase motivation. We analyze the ecological cooperation strategy between local governments by using evolutionary game theory, conclude that economic development and environmental protection situation will be different in different regions, which will result the different game of ecological cooperation among local governments. Local governments in different development stages will adopt different game action as eco-cooperation strategy, rider behavior, uncooperative strategies. We analyze the ecological cooperation strategy between stakeholder groups and the government by using Asymmetric Game Theory. And conclude that enterprise organizations will offer more and more suggestions for the government’s ruling for their own interests, which will lead to a low efficiency level in the government’s environmental regulation, and will form a locking state of system path dependence. Therefore, the realization of ecological modernization has path dependence, and the government should not only consider their own interests, but also concern the interest demands of the relevant interest groups, implement a series appropriate environmental control measures on the basis of balancing all parties interests to promote implementation of ecological modernization.Third, we build a four-corner model of ecological modernization from the four main dimensions such as economic modernization, social modernization, resources and environment modernization and space coordination modernization, intuitively analyze the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics of regional ecological modernization. We consider that the index of ecological modernization in eastern region is higher than the northeast. Although the index of economic modernization in the central region are higher than the western region, the index of social modernization, environmental modernization and space coordination modernization in western region are higher than the central region, leading to a higher index of ecological modernization than the western region. We analyze the development status of regional ecological modernization. First, we analyze the relationship between economic, social development and environmental pollution intensity, conclude that economic, social development and environmental pollution intensity level of the four regions showed N-type relationship of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). After a short-term win-win situation between economic, social development and environmental pollution in these regions, the environmental pollution began to appear "second rise" trend. Secondly, through decoupling analysis of economic development and environmental pollution, we decompose the decoupling elasticity coefficient into scale decoupling elasticity, technology decoupling elasticity and structural decoupling elasticity. Find that the structure decoupling elasticity is a key factor in analyzing the decoupling elasticity coefficient. Scale decoupling elasticity and technical decoupling elasticity between 1990-2013 are mostly in a strong decoupling state. The change range of structure decoupling elasticity and total decoupling elasticity is greater flexibility than others, but the elasticity generally has experienced a process such as weak decoupling-regained decoupling-strong decoupling. The state and degree of decoupling are highly correlated with China’s economic situation and macro-control policies. Finally, we analyze the coupling mechanism of economic, social and environmental system, obtain the conclusion that change trend of coupling coordination degree and coupling degree of the three systems are basically same. Three systems have experienced the same development trend of decline after the first rise as primary disorder-mild disorders-primary disorders-Intermediate coordination-good coordination-quality coordination absolute coordination. We also test the N-type relationship of Environmental Kuznets Curve between economic, social development and environmental pollution intensity from another point.Fourth, we analyze the dynamic factors and mechanism of ecological modernization from a theoretical view. Consider that ecological awareness, ecological regulation, ecological compensation, eco-innovation, ecological consumption and other factors are dynamic factors in achieving ecological modernization. We analyze the mechanism to realize ecological consumption using signal game theory, and conclude that the perfect market mechanism can promote the ecological consumption, can form game equilibrium between ecological consumers and sellers, can promote the realization of ecological modernization.Fifth, We analyze the path dependence of regional ecological modernization and dynamic mechanism of power factors using structural equation model. The result is that ecological modernization depends on economic modernization more than others such as social modernization, resource and environmental modernization, space modernization. And find that the realization of ecological awareness is mainly reflected in the repetition rate of water, the realization of ecological regulation mainly reflected in the laws and regulations, the realization of ecological compensation mainly in the subsidies of sewage fee, and the realization of ecological innovation mainly in the number of workers of environmental technology. But the realization emphasis of dynamic factors in different areas are different, the realization path of power factors are also vary. Finally, we simulate the system of ecological modernization using the system dynamic simulation model, taking Henan Province as an example. Conclude that the population is an important variable to achieve ecological modernization, science and technology has an important positive role in promoting the development of ecological modernization.Sixth, we put forward some relevant policy recommendations on the basis of theoretical and empirical analysis. Such as to continue to improve the operational mechanism of ecological product markets, to enhance innovation capacity, to increase investment in eco-innovation, to improve the system construction of ecological modernization, to promote the development of regional ecological modernization, to develop scientific and rational population development program in order to enhance the quality of the population, to enhance the ecological awareness, to increase investment in environmental protection and so on.