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. 2022 Oct 1;19(19):12539.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912539.

Environmental Regulation, Greenwashing Behaviour, and Green Governance of High-Pollution Enterprises in China

Tingfa Zhang  1 , Huaying Qin  1 , Weishuang Xu  2
Affiliations

Environmental Regulation, Greenwashing Behaviour, and Green Governance of High-Pollution Enterprises in China

Tingfa Zhang et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This study analyses the relationship between greenwashing behaviour, a lack of government supervision, and imperfect green certification mechanisms in China. To improve green governance and greenwashing governance in light of rent-seeking behaviour between high-pollution enterprises and third-party green certification institutions (GCIs), we construct a tripartite game model for the green governance system using an evolutionary game and analyse the interaction and evolutionary trajectory between the three parties. Our results indicate that increasing local government incentives and penalties not only facilitate strengthened green governance by high-pollution enterprises that do not greenwash but also help third-party GCIs to decline to engage in rent-seeking. However, increased incentives lead to relaxed governmental supervision. In addition, the government's incentives and penalties only meet conditions that each agent's total incentives and penalties exceed its speculative gain, and green governance systems can be effectively prevented from resulting in unsatisfactory and unstable strategies. Moreover, the accountability that higher levels of government have to local governments effectively enables high-pollution enterprises' refusal to greenwash and third-party GCIs' refusal to engage in rent-seeking. Our results counsel further research on environmental regulation, green governance, and enterprises' greenwashing, with theoretical and practical applications for both policymakers and enterprises.

Keywords: environmental regulation; evolutionary game; green governance; greenwashing behaviour; high-pollution enterprises; rent-seeking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The phase diagram of high-pollution enterprises’ replication dynamics.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The phase diagram of the third-party GCI’s replication dynamics.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Phase diagram of the local government’s replication dynamics.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The intersection of the surface with the graph in the plane X-O-Y.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) The result of evolutions of array 1. (b) The result of evolutions of array 2.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The influence of Tp on evolutionary processes.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The influence of Fp on evolutionary processes.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The influence of Qp on evolutionary processes.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The influence of Re on evolutionary processes.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The influence of Fe on evolutionary processes.
Figure 11
Figure 11
The influence of Se on evolutionary processes.
Figure 12
Figure 12
The influence of Sp on evolutionary processes.
Figure 13
Figure 13
The influence of Fg on evolutionary processes.
Figure 14
Figure 14
The influence of initial values of three agents on evolutionary processes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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