This paper intends to examine the coupling and coordination degree (CCD) between the urbanization and ecological environment in Guizhou, China. The entropy weight method and coupling effect model were used to calculate the CCD between the urbanization and ecological environment of Guizhou and each of its prefectures. The results show the following: (1) there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the urbanization and ecological environment deterioration in Guizhou, which can be described by the Kuznets curve; (2) both the urbanization and ecological environment improve with the increase in the CCD; (3) unlike the traditional urbanization path, the urbanization in Guizhou features the parallel progress of industrialization and ecological environment protection. These results prove another possibility of the Kuznets curve: the curve can reach the turning point without high urbanization. This new urbanization path of balance-upgrading provides an important reference for backward areas to realize low-carbon economy and sustainable development at the same time.

China’s 13th five-year plan puts forward the development concept of “green development” and takes the construction of green financial system as the development strategy, which shows that the concept of environmental governance and green development is becoming more and more important for national economic development. It is a major strategic task for China to build an environmental governance system dominated by the government and dominated by enterprises and implement the main responsibility of enterprise environmental governance. At present, the environmental supervision of local governments needs to be improved urgently. It is necessary to strengthen the production regulation of enterprises and promote the emission of “three wastes” up to the standard based on the principle of “polluter pays.” The green development of enterprises is not only conducive to the improvement of their own “three effects” and corporate image but also has the external spillover effect of giants and is conducive to the construction of ecological civilization. Therefore, this study will focus on the collaborative governance in the field of environment, explore the ideal collaborative governance framework in the process of environmental collaborative governance, as well as the difficulties and optimization paths of collaboration, and put forward corresponding suggestions for the current environmental governance.

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