Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Lin, Jolene --- "Climate Governance in China: Using the ‘Iron Hand’" [2012] ELECD 724; in Richardson, J. Benjamin (ed), "Local Climate Change Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Local Climate Change Law

Editor(s): Richardson, J. Benjamin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857937476

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Climate Governance in China: Using the ‘Iron Hand’

Author(s): Lin, Jolene

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

11. Climate governance in China: using
the `iron hand'
Jolene Lin*
Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday vowed to realize the country's green goal to cut
energy intensity by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010. In a nationwide video and
teleconference, Wen told governments at all levels to work with an `iron hand' to
eliminate inefficient enterprises.1

This chapter analyses the Chinese climate governance landscape that has
emerged over the past decade, focusing on the role of local governments. The
central argument is that climate governance in China is predominantly top-
down and highly bureaucratic in nature. Local initiatives to address climate
change have tended to be responses to policy directions and performance
targets imposed from the central government in Beijing. However, there is an
interesting transnational dynamic to local climate governance in China, as
many local governments have embraced the financial opportunities afforded
by the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Alongside
environmental aid projects funded by multilateral agencies and private foun-
dations, there is considerable climate mitigation activity at the local level
because of the CDM.
Part 1 is a brief primer on China's recent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
patterns and the central government's climate change policy. Part 2 examines
the role played by local authorities in addressing climate change in China.
They have acted on climate change mainly in response to policy directions
issued by the central government. While there is considerable leeway for
policy innovation at the local level, there are few, ...