Abstract:

Cross-regional environmental governance requires close cooperation between local governments and the intervention of higher authority. As China's cross-regional environmental institution, the inspection bureau should play an active role in cross-regional environmental governance. For a long time, its limited role in cross-regional environmental governance was due to its lack of functional authority. Solving this problem requires clarifying the function orientation of regional environmental inspection institutions.. This study analyzed the “cross-regional pollution impact” and the “cross-regional pollution sources” of two major cross-regional environmental problems in China. This paper argues that a regional environmental inspection institution should be a “supervisor” rather than a “manager”. If it used the central environmental inspection system's framework to its fullest extent, a regional environmental inspection institution could realize effective supervision of local governments' environmental enforcement on cross-regional environmental issues. To play an active role, it would also have to construct mechanisms for information and evidence collection, for supervision and rectification, and for accountability initiation.

Key words: regional environmental protection inspection system, cross-regional environmental governance, function of the institution, environmental protection inspection inspires orientation