On Choice Of Environmental Policy Instruments In China

Environment is a prerequisite for human being’s survival and development, which is worsened by human’s use and damage with economic and social development. As a result, China’s environment pressure is increasing and the environmental situation becomes more grim. After deepening and developing reform and opening up for30years, China’s environmental concept transforms from sustainable development concept to scientific development concept, and then to resource-conserving and environmentally friendly society concept. Now, China has basically established a framework for environmental policy, which will effectively protect and rationally explore the environmental resources, as well as promote economic and social comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development. As the saying goes,"we must first of its profits,". As an integral part of environmental policy, environmental policy instruments is not only a bridge to achieve environmental policy objectives and results, but also effective ways and means for governance environment management, as well as a key to the success of environmental policy. Therefore, How to choose the right environmental policy instruments to manage environment and natural resources plays a decisive role for the government’s ability to achieve environmental policy objectives.Study of environmental policy instruments originated in Western countries in the80s last century. According to the actual situation in China, the category of environmental policy instruments will be classified in this paper into regulatory instruments, social instruments and economic instruments. To choose the environmental policy instrument need to follow the standards of effectiveness, feasibility, adaptability, dynamic and guidance quality. The choice of effective environmental policy instruments is affected by the property of the environment problems, environmental policy objectives, environmental policy instruments, existing policy instruments and restricted by many factors such as the quality of instruments chooser, stakeholders and the environment of instrument selection. Every instrument has its advantages and disadvantages and specific scope of application for example, at present, the choice of environmental policy instruments exist the limited range of options, the inappropriateness of selected type, the isolated of the choice, the paranoia of selected orientation and low efficiency of selection results with the growing economic and social progress and constantly improved socialist market economic system and the rapid rise of civil society. The reason is that the environmental impact, choose the inertia of thinking, tools designed for technical reasons, choose the quality of those restrictions and profit-driven.To solve the above problems, the reasons for the problems are analyzed in details in this paper and the advanced experience from U.S. and Japan is used at the same time. There are practical suggestions put forward such as forming a good environment for shaping environmental policy instrument choice, enriching and improving the available tools, optimizing and combinating the environmental policy instruments, improving the quality of instrument selector and focusing on the localization of environmental policy instrument choice. In this way, there will form a environmental policy instruments system with internal complementarily and external coordination which will achieve the objectives of environmental protection.