China, Great Power Management, and Climate Change: Negotiating Great Power Climate Responsibility in the UN

Abstract

This chapter explores the way China’s rise to great power status transforms the notions of great power responsibility via the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It demonstrates that primary institutions of great power management and sovereignty have framed the historical process of the constitution and regulation of climate responsibility. In particular, China has begun to perceive climate responsibility as an important attribute of its great power responsibility: the norm of climate responsibility is now a central element of China’s search for legitimate great power status. The chapter proposes that great powers’ contribution to international organizations, as well as their domestic interests and actions, may have wider implications for international order and primary institutions of international society.