Prevention and control policy analysis for energy-related regional pollution management in China

The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei area, also known as Jing-Jin-Ji region, is the national capital region of China and has established ambitious targets for tackling air pollution and set measures to reach these targets within a rather complicated multi-level institutional architecture. From the perspective of the stages of development of Jing-Jin-Ji, there are significant differences among the regional industrial structures, energy application methods, and main sources of Particulate Matter (PM) and other polluting emissions. Despite the fact that the prevention and control policy for atmospheric pollution, which focuses on coal consumption at its core, has engendered creative efforts, a series of political, economic, and environmental problems has become a new round in the climate debate between national and local governments during climate policy implementation, thus diminishing the effect of the policy on air pollution prevention and control in Jing-Jin-Ji. Based on historical document analysis, a Competition & Cooperation framework of the local governments in the Jing-Jin-Ji region was constructed, and the historical analysis of government cooperation was conducted. The results show that for historical reasons, administrative decentralization and fiscal decentralization strengthen this phenomenon of governmental fragmentation, which led to both promoting economic growth and being an obstacle to the collaborative reduction of air pollutions in the region. Potential problems with the implementation of the control policy are also discussed. This paper provides a reference for how the dust–haze control policy compels the governmental cooperation in the Jing-Jin-Ji region and will help establish more specific and feasible proposals for PM reduction promotion.