Abstract: Although government environmental information disclosure has been practiced for over a decade in China,its effect on environmental governance has yet been well examined. An empirical research on 120 cities was conducted using a dataset of Pollution Information Transparency Index(PITI)published by third-party organizations. By testing the net effect of environmental information transparency on environmental governance,the study found that PITI generally had positive effects on environmental governance. Nevertheless,the effects vary among three different pollutants. Higher PITI could significantly control PM2.5 and industrial wastewater discharge. However,the improvement for solid waste management is insignificant. The analysis has suggested the dominated position of "forced mechanism" by the government environmental information transparency,as well as the necessity for improvement on the information transparency of solid waste pollution. A comprehensive environmental management system which is compatible with environmental information disclosure needs to be further enhanced as well.