China’s global ecological civilization and multilateral environmental governance

Abstract

This chapter analyses whether China’s concept of ecological civilization (EC) could contribute to bringing about more ambitious and effective global environmental governance. It establishes a link between global values, policy paradigms, and environmental regimes to highlight how the concept of sustainable development may have implicitly encouraged the adoption of weak environmental institutions globally and to analyze whether EC offers an alternative. By analyzing the political and cultural values of China’s concept of EC, as demonstrated through its policy discourse and institutional practice in the field of climate change and biodiversity, as well as the concept’s reception by the international community, the chapter concludes that the chances for EC to provide this alternative paradigm are very limited. To succeed in bringing about such a paradigmatic change, the Chinese concept would have to be extracted from its authoritarian political culture. It would also have to demonstrate in which way it is both different from and superior to the paradigm of sustainable development. This would involve a much more open co-construction of EC by the international community, which currently lacks intellectual and especially popular appeal outside of China. However, EC already contributes to a diversification of environmental discourses and may impact global environmental governance by enabling China to become more actively involved in global environmental governance. Our analysis of the climate change and biodiversity regime shows that this increased involvement has been thus far supportive of multilateral institutions, even though China is not yet willing or able to endorse a leadership role.