Energy reform and climate change mitigation in China : the ideas motivating change

Abstract

Since the 11th Five Year Plan of 2006-2010 China has pursued a number of ambitious climate-related energy reforms. While a consensus is now emerging over the importance of these reforms, the motivations behind China's recent shift towards reducing carbon emissions and increasing energy efficiency remain unclear. To date most analyses of China's motivations for emissions reductions have primarily sought to analyse the costs and benefits of emissions reductions, the bureaucratic politics driving climate-related policy-making, and the incentives shaping China's engagement with international climate negotiations. Largely absent from existing literature is an emphasis on the role of ideas in redefining the main concerns and policy priorities that have led to climate-related energy reform. The central research question of this thesis addresses this issue: What are the key domestic ideas that have motivated China's recent climate-related energy reforms, and how are these ideas likely to shape China's engagement with international climate governance? From a survey of key government energy documents and the writings of China's leading energy academics, this thesis finds that three new ideas have been particularly influential. One idea is new energy security that stresses domestic, rather than international, sources of energy insecurity. A second influential idea is green development and growing concern over the environmental and resource constraints on economic growth. A third important new idea is low-carbon leadership, which posits a vision of China's international political and economic influence based on climate leadership and low-carbon markets. The influence that these three ideas have had on China's domestic reforms have important implications for the wider debate over international climate governance. This analysis of China's motivations for emissions reductions suggests that a combination of 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches may offer the best means of deepening China's engagement with climate governance at the international level.