The Mechanism for Hindrances of Coal-to-Gas Switching Policies in China

Abstract

To improve air quality, Chinese governments issued a series of policies to carry out the coal-to-gas transition. However, the implementation of these policies has been hindered in practice, which has caused a series of negative effects. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the mechanism for hindrances of the implementation of coal-to-gas switching policies in China by using the archival research method. A systematic review of existing literature in Chinese coal-to-gas transition is used to select documents. The systematic review finds a total of 154 research articles from Google Scholar and CNKI and finally selects 20 articles based on the inclusion criteria regarding relevance to the research question, quality assessment, writing language, and accessibility. These articles are analyzed through frequency analysis to identify the importance of hindrances. The most frequent hindrance being mentioned in research articles is the insufficient gas infrastructure which is a common problem across many provinces in China. Economic issues including high prices and shortage funds are the second and third significant hindrances. Both of them are particularly common for Sichuan and Chongqing provinces. Local governments’ excessive implementation belongs to the political issue, which is particularly serious in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. The policy issue of one-size-fits-all ranks at the fifth most important position, which is also especially serious in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. Finally, several political issues containing inadequate incentives for the target group, energy security and underdevelopment of natural gas are specific hindrances for Xinjiang province, although less being mentioned, also significant.