Extending Enforcement: How the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs Leverages Public Information to Strengthen Environmental Governance

Abstract

The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (“IPE”), a domestic Chinese non-governmental organization, plays a unique role in China’s environmental governance by leveraging openly published information to improve environmental compliance and ultimately outcomes. The organization’s use of officially-published information as the basis for its interaction with stakeholders serves the dual purpose of lending credibility to IPE’s advocacy efforts while also mitigating operational sensitivities. While IPE’s work has generally been framed through the lens of transparency, this chapter illustrates how IPE’s mechanisms of influence extend well beyond just the provision and consolidation of information. By implementing systematic assessments to evaluate subjects and rank them, IPE serves as a civil society regulator that incentivizes stakeholders to engage and collaborate with IPE to improve their performance. Moreover, adopting separate ranking systems to target local governments’ disclosure performance and industrial environmental compliance, respectively, is self-reinforcing. On the one hand, the Pollution Information Transparency Index (“PITI”) motivates governments to implement existing laws and policies that mandate environmental disclosure. Wider implementation of these policies in turn expands the quantity of data underpinning the Corporate Information Transparency Index (“CITI”), enabling it to better strengthen corporate environmental governance. IPE’s role, therefore, adds value beyond just consolidating information by supplementing official environmental enforcement efforts where capacity may be lacking.