An Analysis on the Hindrances of the Implementation of the CTG Switching Policies in Rural Areas in Hebei Province: A Smith Policy-Implementing-Process Framework

Abstract

To improve the air quality, Chinese governments issued a series of policies to carry out the coal-to-gas (CTG) transition. However, the implementation of CTG switching policies has been hindered in practice, which has caused a lot of negative effects. Therefore, this essay aims to analyze the hindrances of the implementation of CTG switching policies in rural areas in Hebei province by using Qingzhou Town as a case, employing interviews on officials from implementing organizations and the questionnaire survey method for rural residents. The Smith Policy-Implementing-Process Framework (the Smith model) was used as the theoretical framework to provide a complete analysis of policy implementation hindrances regarding idealized policy, implementing organization, target group, and environmental factors. According to the survey results, there were 10 main hindrances including the problem with policy design, such as simplified policy goal and one-size-fits-all problem; the lack of flexibility, excessive implementation by the implementing organization; target group’s weak environmental awareness, insufficient economic incentives, and low level of participation and policy understanding; several environmental factors, such as the imperfect supervision and performance evaluation mechanism, the ineffective market mechanism, limited gas resource channels, and insufficient infrastructure.