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Abstract
This study probes into climate policy design at city level in China, with Hangzhou’s energy efficiency and renewable energy policies between 2005 and 2014 as a case. The study applies a political action arena approach to accentuate the importance of different normative preferences behind climate change policies in relation to Hangzhou’s emerging urban climate governance regime. Three main categories of policy instruments are identified: i.e. command-and-control, market-based, and collaborative governance instruments, and their development over time is examined. It is concluded that in Hangzhou energy efficiency is a more mature and comprehensive political action arena than renewable energy. The study also finds that there has been a significant shift away from preferences towards command-and-control to more market-based instruments, while cooperative governance instruments are still in their infancy. It finally shows that the design and implementation of local programs, especially the selection of policy instruments, are strongly influenced by the normative preferences of local officials. Thus, the approach of Hangzhou’s government to the design and implementation of climate policies seem to gradually become less authoritarian, more market based, and more accountable, due to the inherent complexity of this political action arena.
Notes
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Prof. Yu Jianxing for his support to the project, to Zhang Liyan for her research assistance and to Andrew Podger for comments on an initial draft. We would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for funding Ting Guan?s research visit in the University of Copenhagen under German Chancellor Fellowship as an initiative of this study.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.
Notes contributors
Ting Guan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of East Asia Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Her current research focuses on local environmental and energy governance from comparative perspective. She has been named as Humboldt Scholar, German Chancellor Fellow, Green Talents Fellow, Global Governance 2020 Fellow, and Visiting Academic Fellow at MERICS.
Jørgen Delman is Professor of China Studies at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at Copenhagen University. He has been working with China for 45 years. His recent publications on China focus on state-business and state-society interaction, climate change and renewable energy politics, climate governance at city level, urban sustainable development, and energy security.
Notes
1 See Qi and Wu, “Politics of Climate Change”; CPI, The Policy Climate; Baeumler et al., Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development in China.
2 See OECD, “Cities and Climate Change”.
3 Here, based on Chinese practice, we use “low carbon development programs/policies” as a concept that embraces policies that contribute to reducing CO2 emissions.
4 See Boyd, “China’s Energy and Climate”.
5 See Zhou and Delbosc, “Chinese Climate and Energy”.
6 Song et al., “China’s Climate Policies”.
7 See Ostrom, “Institutional Rational Choice”.
8 See Koehn, China Confronts Climate Change; Song et al., “China’s Climate Policies”; Odgaard and Delman, “China’s Energy Security Challenges”.
9 Cf. Pattberg and Stripple, “Remapping Transnational Climate Governance”.
10 Lieberthal and Oxenberg (1988) argued that China’s political system can be seen as a fragmented authoritarian system. Also see Delman, “Urban Climate Change Politics”; Koehn, China Confronts Climate Change.
11 See Koehn, China Confronts Climate Change.
12 See Stavins, “Policy Instruments for Climate Change”.
13 See Guo, “China’s Administrative Reform”.
14 See Sigley, “Chinese Governmentalities”.
15 See Heilmann and Perry Mao's invisible hand; Yu and Wang, “Applicability of Governance Theory”.
16 See OECD, “Cities and Climate Change”; Broto and Bulkeley, “Urban Climate Change Experiments”; Bulkeley, Cities and Climate Change.
17 We use “climate policies” as another generic term that comprises policies within the fields of climate change, environment and renewable energy/energy security.
18 See Schröder, Local Climate Governance; Mai and Francesch-Huidobro, Climate Change Governance; Koehn, China Confronts Climate Change.
19 See Song et al., “China’s climate policies”; IPCC, Climate Change 2014.
20 See note 7 above.
21 See Ostrom, “Institutional Rational Choice,” 23.
22 See Ostrom, “Institutional Rational Choice,” 26.
23 See Ostrom, “Institutional Rational Choice,” 36.
24 See Ostrom, “Institutional Rational Choice”; Schlager, “A Comparison of Frameworks”.
25 Cf. note 12 above.
26 Cf. Ostrom, “Institutional Rational Choice”.
27 See Chow, “Economic Planning in China”.
28 See note 7 above.
29 See Sigley, “Chinese Governmentalities”; Rhodes, “Governing without Government”.
30 See note 27 above.
31 See Dubash et al., “National Climate Change Mitigation”.
32 See CPCCC, “Decision on Deepening Reforms”.
33 See note 12 above.
34 See Xu et al., “Chinese Climate Change Mitigation”.
35 See Kostka, “Barriers of Environmental Policies”.
36 See Delman, “Urban Climate Change Politics”; Koehn, China Confronts Climate Change; Kostka, “Barriers of Environmental Policies”; CPCCC “Decision on Deepening Reforms”; Wang, “Search for Sustainable Legitimacy”.
37 See Wang, “Search for Sustainable Legitimacy”.
38 See Qi, “Low-Carbon development in China”.
39 See Koehn, China Confronts Climate Change; Wang, “Search for Sustainable Legitimacy”; MF, “Energy Conservation & Emission Reduction”.
40 See Qi and Wu, “Politics of Climate Change”.
41 See note 35 above.
42 See Sigley, “Chinese Governmentalities”.
43 See note 12 above.
44 Cottrell et al., “Revenues for Green Energy”; Zhou and Delbosc, “Chinese Climate and Energy”.
45 Zhan, “Carbon Trading in China”; Kostka, “Barriers of Environmental Policies”.
46 Culminating with the CPC Central Committee’s 2013 reform program. See CPCCC, “Decision on Deepening Reforms”.
47 Kooiman et al., “Interactive Governance and Governability”.
48 See Mai and Francesch-Huidobro, Climate Change Governance.
49 See note 48 above.
50 See note 7 above.
51 Cf. Ingram, Schneider and DeLeon, “Social Construction and Policy Design”.
52 See Guan et al., “Improving China’s Environmental Performance”.
53 See Heilmann, “Local to National Policy”.
54 See Boyd et al., “Emerging Arrangements for MRV”; See Zhou and Delbosc, “Chinese Climate and Energy”.
55 See Qi and Wu, “Politics of Climate Change”.
56 See Odgaard and Delman, “China’s Energy Security Challenges”.
57 See Hangzhou Government, “Preparing the Twelfth Five-year Plan”.
58 See Hangzhou Government, “Energy Reduction Report 2014”.
59 Energy intensity, energy consumption per unit of GDP, has been set as a national indicator for energy conservation since 2006 (State Council of China, 2005). Additionally, total energy consumption was set as a second national indicator for energy conservation in late January 2013, when China’s State Council approved an “energy consumption control target” below the equivalent of 4 bill. ton of coal per year by 2015 (See State Council of China, 2013). Additionally, total energy consumption was set as a second national indicator for energy conservation in late January 2013, when China’s State Council approved an “energy consumption control target” below the equivalent of 4 bill. ton of coal per year by 2015 (See State Council of China, 2013).
60 See Hangzhou Government, “Hangzhou 11th Five Year Plan for Energy Conservation”.
61 See Hangzhou Government, “Hangzhou 12th Five Year Plan for Energy Conservation”.
62 See Hangzhou Government, “Hangzhou 11th Five Year Plan for Energy Conservation”; “Hangzhou 12th Five Year Plan for Energy Conservation”.
63 See Delman, “Urban Climate Change Politics”.
64 See Zhejiang Economy and Trade Committee (ZETC) and Zhejiang Statistics Bureau (ZSB), “Guideline for Energy Consumption”.
65 See Hangzhou Government, “Plan for Energy Conservation (2012)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2013)”.
66 See General Administration of Quality Supervision (GAQS), “Measuring Instrument of Energy “; Hangzhou Government, “Plan for Energy Conservation (2013)”.
67 See Hangzhou Government, “Plan for Energy Conservation (2007)”.
68 See Hangzhou Government, “Plan for Energy Conservation (2009)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2010)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2011)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2012)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2013)”; “Energy Reduction Report 2014”.
69 See Hangzhou Government, “Plans for Energy-Saving Program”.
70 See KPMG, “Green Economy-invest in Hangzhou”.
71 See Kostka and Shin, “Energy Conservation Service Companies”.
72 See Göbel, “Uneven Policy Implementation in Rural China”.
73 See Liu, “Credits for Energy Conservation”.
74 See Hangzhou Government, “Plan for Energy Conservation (2007)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2009)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2010)”; “Plan of Strategic Industries (2011–2015)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2012)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2013)”; “Plan for Energy Conservation (2014)”; KPMG, “Green Technology–Invest Hangzhou”.
75 Cf. Kostka, “Barriers of Environmental Policies”.
76 The first policies primarily aimed at solar energy and new energy autos.
77 See KPMG, “New Energy”.
78 See National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and National Energy Bureau (NEB), “Renewable Energy’s 12th Five-year Plan”.
79 Hangzhou’s government has little influence on the acquisition of energy or on determining the sources of its power supply. This responsibility rests with the province (interview with official from Hangzhou Development and Reform Commission, 13 November 2015.
80 See Hangzhou Government, “New Energy Industry Plan (2010–2015)”; “Plan for Major Industries (2011–2015)”.
81 See Hangzhou Government, “Three-year Plan for Energy-saving”; “Development of the Photovoltaic Industry”.
82 See Hangzhou Government, “'Twelfth Five Year Low Carbon Plan”.
83 See Hangzhou Government, “New Energy Industry Development (2010–2015)”.
84 See note 83 above.
85 See KPMG, “New energy”.
86 See note 82 above.
87 See Hangzhou Government, “Hangzhou Municipal Government Opinions on the Better Development of the Distributed Photovoltaic Industry by Accelerating the Applications”.
88 See note 87 above.
89 Cf. note 63 above.
90 See Qi, “Low-Carbon Development in China”.
91 See note 7 above.