The Research On The Environmental Protection Accountability System Of Provincial Government

Environmental protection is a basic national policy of China. However, with industrialization and accelerated urbanization, China’s environmental pollution has entered a peak period. In recent years, environmental pollution accidents occur frequently, our country is facing the most serious environmental crisis so far. In the current stage of development, how to achieve win-win economic development and environmental protection, is an important issue to be explored by the theoretical and practical researchers.Many domestic scholars conducted the study on environmental protection, generally believing that the environmental responsibility at all levels of government is missing or not carried on correctly, which became the main reason for causing environmental pollution accident. The administration’s failure to perform or not perform properly the environmental responsibility, is due to the absence of a viable accountability system, which is also thought as the environmental accountability system is imperfect to some extent. Environmental accountability system is actually the introduction of the government accountability system into the specific field of environmental protection, and also an system which works as the main body, by some specific accountability procedures, supervises officials at all levels of government to make sure if they properly undertake adequate responsibility for the implementation of environmental protection. Based on the previous environmental accountability research results, this paper pointed out that the provincial government as the highest level of local administrations, which also bonds with the central government and local municipal or county governments, leading the development of a district, should be the most proper object of the environmental accountability, and from the very provincial government level to establish and improve the environmental accountability system is required. Begun with the study of the motivations and the value of the environmental accountability system of provincial governments, this paper analysed in detail of the problems within the environmental accountability system of provincial government, as well as the causes of these problems. On this basis, the paper gave out some countermeasures to improve the accountability system of environmental protection of the provincial government, including to built a new political culture of environmental accountability of the provincial government, to reinforce the environmental protection laws and regulations, to improve the environmental accountability of provincial government, to strengthen the supporting mechanism of provincial government environmental accountability system, and to improve the systematic-related affairs of the accountability system of provincial government. By the institutional design of environmental accountability system of provincial government, it is hoped that the local governments could reverse its short-term bias on economy development over the environmental protection. The author believes that the provincial government, as the main unit, should be responsible for local environmental protection, so as to ensure that the provincial government could both lead the local economic development and give sufficient attention to environmental protection, finally to achive a coordinated development between the two and achieve win-win situation. This is an important way to build the responsible government and to achieve the sustainable development.