Abstract
Climate change governance has attracted increasing academic interest. However, holistic reviews on the dynamic complexity and stability of climate change governance have received little attention. This study addresses this research gap by conducting a structurally comparative analysis between China and the United States based on the “polity–policy–politics” framework. Three analytical facets are identified for each dimension of the framework, including institutional settings, the nature of policy mechanisms used in climate change practices, and the degree of multi-actors’ involvement under two governance scenarios. Results show that climate change governance in the two countries differs substantially. The process of climate governance in China is driven by strong leadership at the national level alongside policy continuity, whereas well-functioning market mechanisms and robust regulatory systems are still lacking. A more meaningful involvement of social forces is also critically needed when addressing increasingly complex and uncertain climate change. By contrast, the US federal climate policies are considered inadequate compared with sub-national actions and persistent efforts of non-state actors, to which the success of climate practices is largely attributed. This study systematically uncovers the divergence of climate mitigation under different political–institutional contexts, and evaluates the effectiveness of governance arrangement in the two countries, which helps policymakers to understand the potential of improving the performance of climate change governance.
Highlights
As the climate change problem becomes increasingly complicated and its essence as a global public good is highlighted, climate change governance has aroused unprecedented worldwide attention in recent years
Institutional setting in which level the locus of climate change mitigation lies in
Alongside efforts taken at the sub-national level, non-state actors play an indispensable role in climate change governance, especially in terms of bridging the gaps involving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the committed NRCs, which cannot be achieved if only the federal government is engaged [48]
Summary
As the climate change problem becomes increasingly complicated and its essence as a global public good is highlighted, climate change governance has aroused unprecedented worldwide attention in recent years. The meta-framework is well suited for the aim of our research, as it systematically summarizes three key dimensions based on the conceptualization of the governance modes, which allows us to analyze the notion of governance with a holistic approach With this multi-dimensional framework, this paper uncovers the dynamic complexity and stability of climate practices within the two countries, along with their own opportunities and obstacles in addressing climate change concerns, and based upon that, evaluates the effectiveness of governance in the two countries in meeting the temperature targets set in the Paris Agreement. Consistency (e.g., recycling) is not included in this study), this study contributes to the literature of climate change governance in three ways It contributes to an understanding of complexity and governance divergence within distinct contexts by closely examining mitigation practices in China and the US, which will shed light on other comparative works under various political–institutional contexts.
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