| Sustainability is a process or state that can be sustained for a long time.The sustainability of human society consists of three interdependent parts of environmental sustainability,economic sustainability and social sustainability.Environmental sustainability aims to resolve conflicts between environmental and economic systems,the Urban Environmental Sustainability Policy is a set of plans and measures for city governments to achieve environmental sustainability goals.With the development of urbanization on a global scale,the status of cities has risen,and garnered increasing amount of attentions from the academia on the discussion of urban environmental sustainability policy issues.Two issues are discussed:First,what is the status of urban governments in the process of environmental sustainability?Championed by David Gibbs,professor of economic geography at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom,and Richard Feiock,professor of the School of Public Policy at Florida State University,the mainstream belief is that based on the characteristics of post-Fordist social regulation and interest group regulation theory,the city government is the leader of the environmental governance system.Local interest groups,natural environment and economic foundation determine the enthusiasm and implementation of environmental policies by the city government.However,the author believes that this mechanism of influence has at least two drawbacks.On the one hand,it is difficult for urban governments to effectively deal with the public interest issue of environmental quality optimization as the pursuer of individual utility maximization;on the other hand,the cross-domain of environmental issues has caused the city government to evade responsibility and is powerless.Therefore,the central government should be included in the urban environmental governance system for inspection,which may be of great importance to the promotion of urban environmental policies.Second,what is the impact of urban environmental sustainability policies and actions on urban economic development and environmental quality?The Follow the Costs camp believes that environmental sustainability policies will increase corporate costs and create a crowding out effect on the accumulation of physical capital,thus constraining economic growth.However,the Porter Hypothesis advocates that environmental policies do not necessarily hinder competitive advantage and on the contrary,they may increase competitiveness.However,the author believes that the Porter hypothesis is subject to many additional conditions,and the effectiveness of the urban environmental sustainability policy depends on the specific stage of the economic development stage and environmental sustainability policy of the city.That is to say,for the Porter Hypothesis,a single linear model cannot be used,and it is necessary to distinguish different situations for further study.To this end,the author establishes the research foundation from the following three perspectives.First,to sort out the research content.Using the social network main path analysis technique,based on Pajek software and Python language,citation network analysis was conducted on the literature about urban environmental sustainability policy,in order to identify important documents in the research and development process of the field.The research on the status quo,governance structure,driving factors and effectiveness evaluation of environmental sustainability policies is reviewed.Second,to conduct policy classification.Based on the diversity of environmental sustainability policy objectives,this paper proposes a classification system and plan for urban environmental sustainability policies,and classifies them into livable environmental policies,green economic policies,and eco-social policies,and comes up with an analytical framework for policy drivers and effectiveness.Third,to establish a data foundation.Using the open decoding of text analysis,the implementation of urban environmental sustainability policy is quantified through policy text analysis,and an urban environmental sustainability policy database is formed.On the basis of the above research work,the author establishes a theoretical framework for two research questions:First,establish a model of driving factors for urban environmental sustainability policies,quantitatively analyze the impact of central policy orientation,grassroots environmental protection willingness,local environmental foundations on urban environmental policies and actions,and clarify the status and role of urban governments in environmental governance systems.Secondly,establish a threshold model for evaluating the effectiveness of urban environmental sustainability policies,and use the R language platform to clarify the effectiveness of various policies implemented by cities at different stages of development and to test the conditions for establishing the Porter Hypothesis.An empirical test was conducted with 110 cities in the Yangtze Economic Zone as the sample,and the following main conclusions were drawn(1)The city government is the executor of the environmental governance system,the central government is the leader of the environmental governance system,and the interest group regulation theory has limitations in environmental governance.In the formulation and implementation of urban environmental sustainability policies,the central policy orientation has a significant positive effect on the implementation of urban environmental sustainability policies,while the grassroots environmental protection willingness and local environmental basis are not significant.This shows that although the city is the main carrier of environmental governance,it plays a passive role only in accordance with the central government's directives.This raises questions about the views of the city government leading theory proposed by scholars such as Gibbs and Feiock.The central government is more effective as the leader of the environmental governance system.From the perspective of the cross-domain of environmental issues and the representation of public interest,this effectiveness exists not only in China's institutional background and development stage,but also in the governance of environmental problems in all regions is advanced and suitable for promotion.Specifically,the indirect role of central policy guidance(ie,promoting coordinated governance in neighboring regions)has a significant role in promoting the development of livable environmental policies.The indirect regulatory role of central policy guidance has significantly promoted green economic policies and eco-social policies.(2)Under different development stages,the economic effects of urban environmental sustainability policies are different.For the cities in the early and middle stages of industrialization,the effect of Porter Hypothesis is more significant The threshold test of the economic effectiveness model of livable environmental policy and green economic policy is significant,indicating that it is affected by the stage of urban economic development,that is,the establishment of the Porter hypothesis does exist.Specifically,the polluting industries migrated to the urbanization in the middle and early stages of industrialization and under the guidance of policies,while the intellectual and capital-intensive industries concentrated in the industrialized and post-industrialized stages,and cross-migrated in the two types of industries.Under the effect,the green economy policy brings better economic results to the cities in the early and middle stages of industrialization,while the livable environmental policy has better economic benefits for the urbanization period and post-industrialization period.Although it has not formed a significant promotional effect,the earlier restrictive effect has been eliminated.Therefore,the Porter Hypothesis can be modified as:For the early and mid-term industrialization,the green economy policy aimed at developing green industries can promote economic benefits and improve comprehensive competitiveness;for cities in the late industrialization and post-industrialization,The livable environmental policy that reduces environmental system damage no longer has a restrictive effect on economic efficiencyIn summary,different types of cities should adopt different environmental sustainability policies to maximize policy benefits.As the leader of the environmental governance system,the central government should adopt different guiding measures for different cities.For cities in the early stage of industrialization,they should play a direct supervisory role,promote the coordinated development of urban environment-economy by improving the supervision system,strict assessment standards,and implementing financial subsidies;and promote urban environment-economy synergy.Central government should play a guiding role for cities in the late stage of industrialization and post-industrialization,support the establishment of environmental synergy mechanisms in neighboring regions,and focus on improving the environmental quality of cities.Since the urban development stage will also affect the effectiveness of policy implementation,the city government can not only passively implement the central policy,but also needs to exert enthusiasm to build an environmentally sustainable governance system that forms a central-local dual coupling.Based on the summary and nonlinear models,the author studies the two major disputes in the study of urban environmental sustainability policy.Based on the establishment of the Yangtze Economic Zone Environmental Sustainability Policy Database,the author quantitatively reveals the status of urban policy in the governance system and clearly defines the conditions for the establishment of the Porter hypothesis,aiming to explore the laws and directions in the sustainable development of urban environment.Looking into the future,the sustainable development of urban environment is a complex scientific proposition.The governance path with government policy as the core will continue to be the focus of research in the future.Its theory and practice also require more in-depth and more detailed exploration. |
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