Disclosure on Request: A Programmatic Method for Government Environmental Information Disclosure

The Open Government Information Regulation is the fundamental guarantee of the right to know for Chinese citizens. In particular, the opening windows for Disclosure on Request (DOR) attempts to initiate direct dialogue between the public and administrative departments. The annual reports on Government Environmental Information Disclosure (GEID) show the gradually strengthening relationship between the public and the government in environmental governance. However, the results of DOR and the difficulties encountered in the application process are still unclear. We analyzed the challenges the public faces when using programmatic methods like DOR to request the disclosure of environmental information that is not proactively made public. We further revealed the causes behind the responses of administrative departments and reinforced calls for policy design concerning the efficiency of DOR in the environmental and other public sectors.