A review of China’s climate governance: state, market and civil society

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article disaggregates the often complex, hierarchical and still-evolving structure of China’s climate governance into three dimensions: the state, the market and civil society. The three dimensions are not exclusive of each other but overlap in many important respects, and their roles and relative levels of importance in China’s climate governance have changed over time. The state determines the blueprint of all climate change policies and management, reflecting an essential condition of China’s political economy and public administration. It sets overall targets and goals, and also acts as a supervising framework, sometimes enabling, at other times constraining, the activities of the market and civil society. The latter two dimensions, however, have become more important in recent years. Market-based policies, particularly emissions trading systems, are becoming an important tool for emissions control. Civil society has also begun to play a more active role in climate governance, an indication of which is the growing number of environmental NGOs, and their growing collaboration with international counterparts. All three dimensions and the ways in which they overlap will remain crucial to climate governance in China into the foreseeable future.Key policy insightsAs the world’s largest GHG emitter, China faces increasing pressure to control its emissions and shift to a low-carbon economy.This pressure is both international and domestic, reflecting China’s central role in global mitigation efforts, as well as the growing demand by citizens for better environmental conditions.In the period after the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, the evolution of China’s climate governance – with corresponding shifts in the roles of state, market and civil society – will continue to have significant implications for the global effort to combat climate change.