China's climate change policy post-Kyoto (2009-2015): Applying the bureaucratic politics approach

China is regarded as the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide. Having ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which binds countries to pursue emission reduction targets towards climate change mitigation, it faced international pressure to cut its carbon emissions. Accordingly, this aptly illustrates the country's evolving climate change policy that is mainly shaped by domestic considerations and its ascent to global supremacy. Using bureaucratic politics approach to examine a one-party state like China, this study finds that government ministries engaged in bargaining as the competition for power and influence intensified. In particular, the China Meteorological Administration and the Ministry of Environmental Protection asserted influence on climate change policy during the early years of international negotiations, while the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seized control of the policymaking process on climate change by mainstreaming economic development in the agenda. However, China's rise as an economic giant, along with the accompanying threats of climate change, prompted the leadership to adopt a low-carbon green growth strategy, which eventually became the country's ideal development path for the long-term.