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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Spatial and Temporal Analysis of China’s
Environmental Regulatory Framework:
A Multidimensional Assessment
1
Faculty of Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
2
School of Economics and Management, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Submission date: 2024-03-05
Final revision date: 2024-04-12
Acceptance date: 2024-04-18
Online publication date: 2024-09-09
Publication date: 2025-01-28
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(3):2297-2306
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The environmental regulatory framework is crucial for sustainable development. In China,
the framework has evolved into a complex, multidimensional system. However, due to the uneven
regional development in China, the environmental regulatory framework exhibits significant spatial
variations. Previous studies have overlooked the multidimensionality of China’s environmental
regulatory framework and the temporal and spatial development differences among provinces.
This gap poses challenges to comprehensively analyzing and evaluating China’s environmental
regulatory framework. This study addresses this oversight by introducing a multidimensional
composite indicator to assess the environmental regulatory framework’s spatial and temporal dynamics.
By incorporating command-and-control, market-based, and public participation dimensions, we analyze
data from 31 Chinese provinces over the period 2011 to 2021 using dynamic factor analysis. Our findings
reveal that command-and-control and public participation dimensions play a dominant role in China’s
environmental regulatory framework, while the market-based dimension requires further enhancement.
We observe a general weakening in the intensity of the environmental regulatory framework from east
to west, with provinces like Jiangsu, Shandong, and Hubei showing improvements over the decade,
contrary to the decline in less developed, resource-rich western and northeastern regions. The study
suggests that these latter regions could significantly benefit from leveraging local wind and solar
energy resources to boost their renewable energy potential and fortify the market-based dimension
of the environmental regulatory framework.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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