Process, Experience And Enlightenment Of Air Pollution Control In The United Kingdom Government

Air pollution has become an important challenge to the process of China’s modernization. UK has made great achievements in air pollution control, so it could be of great significance to China’s air pollution control. This paper is based on the governance theory framework, discusses the experience of air pollution control in the United Kingdom government from the perspective of national governance, and provides policy recommendations for our government’s air pollution control.First, based on the analysis of the connotation, features and principal means of national governance, this paper holds that there are multiple subjects in national governance and these subjects have different places and roles. Environmental governance is a social public affair that matters public interest and a significant content of national governance. The main route of air pollution control is to resort to politics, make it rise to national level and as an important function of state, establish special agencies by state, rely on strong mobilization ability of state, coordinate all forces such as government, market and civil society and the like, and take various measures for comprehensive control.Second, by the guide of national governance theory and review of British air pollution control history, this paper divides governance measures into legal means, administrative means and economic means and analyzes performance of each means. Legal means is the first tool in British air pollution control. UK enacted various laws and continuously improved legislation in the process of air pollution control. It finally formed a complete legal system, which played a positive role in air pollution control. Administrative means, which has made remarkable achievements in practice, mainly includes establishing professional responsive agencies, formulating relative policies and regulations, and setting up expert advisory committees. But administrative means also has some disadvantages such as institutional conflicts, having blind faith in authority and power rent-seeking and the like. Economic means mainly refers to playing the role of market mechanism in environmental governance. By implementing a series of economic levers and market incentives, the initiative and enthusiasm of saving energy, reducing consumption and emission of enterprises can be motivated, thus environmental protection and enterprise development can be harmonious. But there still exists market failure in environmental protection. On the basis of fully understanding the performance of different governance means, this paper believes that experience of British air pollution control includes persisting in the thought of rule of law, comprehensive governance and public participation.Third, although China’s air pollution control has made some progress, there still exist many problems, mainly including laws on environmental protection are too broad, process of legislation lags behind the reality, laws are not strictly enforced; the role of economic means in our country’s air pollution control is not fully embodied; excessive reliance on administrative means; campaign-style pollution control is remarkably effective in a short time, but its negative effects should not be underestimated. Based on the experience of British pollution control and the specific situation of our country, this paper proposes countermeasures on comprehensive air pollution control that are led by the rule of law and government, and involve enterprises and citizens.