How Do Environmental Concerns and Governance Performance Affect Public Environmental Participation: A Case Study of Waste Sorting in Urban China

Hang Yin, Yixiong Huang and Kuiming Wang
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Hang Yin: School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Yixiong Huang: Department of Economics, Law and Society, ESSCA School of Management, EU-Asia Institute, 49003 Angers, France
Kuiming Wang: China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: Environmental pollution threatens public health and has become a social concern in recent years. Despite the conditions for public participation in environmental governance have improved considerably, the level of public engagement in government projects still falls short of expectations. Therefore, this article introduced two key variables, hoping to answer the following research question that how environmental concerns and governance performance affect public environmental participation. Through principal component analysis of the data from the “Survey of Chinese Urban Residents’ Attitudes toward Environmental Protection”, the findings of this article are as follows: First, public environmental concerns have no significant impact on their environmental engagement; second, the improvement of residents’ confidence in the government performance of environmental management reduces their willingness to participate in official projects. The higher the confidence in the government’s performance, the lower the level of public engagement is. Moreover, due to the consideration of self-interest or lack of environmental awareness, those who oppose waste incineration in waste terminal disposal tend to take a non-participatory role in waste sorting programs. Therefore, we suggest that the government have more diverse shareholders in environmental protection, so it should expand public participation through education, publicity, mobilization, and incentives.

Keywords: environmental protection; waste sorting; public participation; urban governance; governance performance; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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