Framing climate strategy of the oil industry of China: A tailored approach to ecological modernization

Abstract

China has announced its ambitious targets of attaining a carbon peak before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Although China is a developing country, its oil sector plays a key role in carbon emissions and thus has a responsibility toward climate change. It is very important to understand the role of the oil industry of China in climate governance. This raises the following question: how have oil companies in China framed and tailored their climate strategies? By employing the concept of ecological modernization as a theoretical framework, this study observes the driving forces of climate policies, low-carbon energy, advanced technologies, and market mechanisms by collecting and analyzing reports published by three oil companies. The main findings are that state-owned oil companies in China have adopted the ideas and institutions of national climate strategies, low-carbon energy systems, and emerging financial and market tools. The analysis of the reports reveals that the main motives for the climate strategies of the companies are China’s administrative system, international climate cooperation, the transformation of the energy mix, and emerging market mechanisms.