China’s climate governance from 2009 to 2019: motivations, instruments, actors, and geopolitics

The People’s Republic of China (China) is a key country for achieving the global 1.5°C climate target. Since 2006, it has become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). Despite this increased relevance of China for effective climate governance, we lack a holistic understanding of China’s factual role in climate governance, both domestically and on the international stage. To advance our knowledge of China’s role and relevance in climate governance, we perform a systematic literature review in the field of climate governance between 2009 and 2019. We identify four main research themes that structure the scholarly debate on China's climate governance, distilled from a review of 250 articles. These are: a) the motivations behind China’s climate action; b) available policy instruments for governing climate change; c) the role of non-state actors; and d) comparative analysis between China and other countries. We found that the current literature focuses predominantly on how to govern climate change at specific levels through a range of case studies. What is missing is an assessment of the coherence, or lack thereof, among different policy levels and policy instruments, as well as a detailed analysis of the role and relevance of non-state actors in China’s climate governance. We encourage scholars to factor in these gaps when developing future research. The main motivations behind China’s climate action are domestic considerations, in particular, the need to decouple economic growth from emissions.In general, China has addressed climate change by leveraging existing institutional arrangements. These institutions are instruments of public policy and remain the primary mechanism for managing climate mitigation and adaptation in China.The key to implementing climate policy in China lies in local governments. How local governments perceive, behave, and balance different priorities affects the final outcome.Non-state actors do have opportunities to participate in climate governance in China. However, participation is limited to actors with economic or technological expertise, such as large domestic firms, research institutes, international development banks, and transnational companies.Countries adopt similar climate policy instruments despite their various institutional composition. The main motivations behind China’s climate action are domestic considerations, in particular, the need to decouple economic growth from emissions. In general, China has addressed climate change by leveraging existing institutional arrangements. These institutions are instruments of public policy and remain the primary mechanism for managing climate mitigation and adaptation in China. The key to implementing climate policy in China lies in local governments. How local governments perceive, behave, and balance different priorities affects the final outcome. Non-state actors do have opportunities to participate in climate governance in China. However, participation is limited to actors with economic or technological expertise, such as large domestic firms, research institutes, international development banks, and transnational companies. Countries adopt similar climate policy instruments despite their various institutional composition.