Climate Protection Governance and Participation in the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

In the last five years China has passed new laws and regulations and has formulated new policies and targets for climate protection. The country’s private sector is also making contributions to this new focus, in terms of technology development, green investments, public-private partnerships, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting. Civil society organizations, meanwhile, have built networks and launched campaigns and projects at local and national level. Against this backdrop, this paper examines China’s efforts at addressing climate protection from a multilevel governance, collaborative governance, multi-stakeholder, and trisectoral cooperation perspective. It is argued that China is currently implementing a policy mix of commandand-control and market-based mechanisms to address climate change. The case study of Xiamen highlights that local governments in China use low-carbon policies as a marketing tool, but lack strong incentives to actually implement such policies. The case of Xiamen illustrates some policies and potentials of low-carbon reforms and initiatives, but it also discusses the hereto missed opportunities for stakeholder interaction — in particular regarding the involvement of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in projects and campaigns.