Vertical Governance in the Changes of Supervision System: The Second Round Central Environmental Protection Supervision in Focus

Before the launch of the second round of central environmental protection supervision, the Work Regulations of Central Environmental Protection Supervision were officially issued. This suggested that environmental protection supervision has been officially embedded in China’s environmental governance system as a normalized governance tool. Our previous research confirmed the role of the environmental protection supervision in responding to the vertical environmental governance challenges. However, as the central government has been continuouslystrengthening the supervision system, there is still a lack of systematic explanation to the changesin local governments that will bring to environmental governance. The second roundimplementation of central environmental protection supervision in Zhejiang Province shows that the normalized and institutionalized central supervision does not aim for short-term movements, but rather focuses on the long-term ability to continuously improve the quality of environment. Therefore, local governments have carried out active organizational adjustment that not only improves the leading group mechanism of environmental protection supervision under the provincial Party committee, but also implements the discovery mechanism of environmental pollution according to local conditions. All this would lead to an increase in the positive interaction of vertical inter-governmental relationship and the efficiency of environmental governance.