Climate change is a key problem of the 21st century. China, as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has committed to stabilize its current emissions and dramatically increase the share of electricity production from non-fossil fuels by 2030. However, this is only a first step: in the longer term, China needs to aggressively strive to reach a goal of zero-emissions. Through detailed discussions of electricity pricing, electric vehicle policies, nuclear energy policies, and renewable energy policies, this book reviews how near-term climate and energy policies can affect long-term decarbonization pathways beyond 2030, building the foundations for decarbonization in advance of its realization. Focusing primarily on the electricity sector in China - the main battleground for decarbonization over the next century – it provides a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers, as well as energy and climate experts.

Now that the most recent scientific estimates have shown that China has become the world's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, China's influence on the world's environment and sustainable development highlights the importance of tailoring Chinese climate change law to conform with the requirements of international conventions and agreements on climate change. This thorough analysis, based on an examination of climate status, legal background, and current regulatory systems in China, examines the potential role of different policy instruments in reducing carbon emissions in order to find an appropriate choice for China, and recommends approaches to key issues for relevant authorities. The author conducts a comprehensive and in-depth study on the three mainstream environmental policy instruments used to control carbon emissions – the cap-and-trade system, the carbon tax, and command-and- control regulations – in a Chinese context. She reviews China's current policies, and elucidates how the issues of climate change and global warming call for social, environmental, economic, and legal reforms in China, especially in the areas of administrative law and property rights law. Among the issues and topics covered are the following: - key issues on designing and implementing each of the three policy instruments; - the choice of regulatory instruments for carbon emissions reduction in a socialist market economy based on the discussion of market failure and government failure theories; - legal challenges from China's current administrative legislation and the definition of carbon emissions entitlements; - practical effect of China's climate change policy at the national, provincial, and local levels; - effectiveness of China's implementation of its international obligations; - lessons learned from schemes implemented in the United States and Australia; - comparison of China's seven regional pilot emissions trading scheme (ETS) programmes with the well-established EU ETS; - linkage between China's ETS and other ETSs from a global perspective; and - future direction of an emerging carbon market in China. The analysis assesses the critical costs and benefits of each approach in the context of selected case studies, taking legal literature in the field fully into account. Given that the Chinese government is taking steps to reduce emissions by altering energy production and usage and is signalling a willingness to make similar commitments in a multilateral treaty, it is very timely and important for lawmakers and scholars, within and outside China, to think about new and appropriate regulatory measures to respond to the crisis and plan for a sustainable future. This study provides not only a useful benchmark for both China and other countries in formulating initiatives on enhancing climate protection, but also details the global implications for governments and for international organizations concerned with the understanding between China and the rest of the world in the context of climate change mitigation.

Sixteen of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China. A serious water pollution incident occurs once every two-to-three days. China's breakneck growth causes great concern about its global environmental impacts, as others look to China as a source for possible future solutions to climate change. But how are Chinese people really coming to grips with environmental problems? This book provides access to otherwise unknown stories of environmental activism and forms the first real-life account of China and its environmental tensions. 'China and the Environment' provides a unique report on the experiences of participatory politics that have emerged in response to environmental problems, rather than focusing only on macro-level ecological issues and their elite responses. Featuring previously untranslated short interviews, extracts from reports and other translated primary documents, the authors argue that going green in China isn't just about carbon targets and energy policy; China's grassroots green defenders are helping to change the country for the better.

China's deepening health crisis reveals the fragility of the party-state and undercuts China's ability to project influence internationally.

What does it mean for the future of the planet when one of the world’s most durable authoritarian governance systems pursues “ecological civilization”? Despite its staggering pollution and colossal appetite for resources, China exemplifies a model of state-led environmentalism which concentrates decisive political, economic, and epistemic power under centralized leadership. On the face of it, China seems to embody hope for a radical new approach to environmental governance. In this thought-provoking book, Yifei Li and Judith Shapiro probe the concrete mechanisms of China’s coercive environmentalism to show how ‘going green’ helps the state to further other agendas such as citizen surveillance and geopolitical influence. Through top-down initiatives, regulations, and campaigns to mitigate pollution and environmental degradation, the Chinese authorities also promote control over the behavior of individuals and enterprises, pacification of borderlands, and expansion of Chinese power and influence along the Belt and Road and even into the global commons. Given the limited time that remains to mitigate climate change and protect millions of species from extinction, we need to consider whether a green authoritarianism can show us the way. This book explores both its promises and risks.

This book summarizes experiences from the World Bank s activities related to low-carbon urban development in China. It highlights the need for low-carbon city development and presents details on specific sector-level experiences and lessons, a framework for action, and financing opportunities.

This book systematically introduces readers to the framework of China’s ETS pilots, exploring their design and operating process, the current state of the carbon market, and various barriers encountered. To do so, it deconstructs the Guangdong ETS, which is the largest and most representative of China’s seven ETS pilots. The book subsequently describes and evaluates all seven pilots in terms of their efficiency, macro and micro effects, the method involved in the DEA model, the CGE model, and cost-benefit analysis. In turn, in the assessment section it demonstrates how some ETS pilots have failed to control carbon emissions due to inordinately high emissions quotas issued by the local government etc. Further, it argues that ETS should focus on those industries with large emissions and high mitigating potential for the time being, and then gradually expand the scale of its coverage. As China’s national ETS is slated for launch on the basis of the lessons learned from the ETS pilots, the book offers a timely and valuable resource for all those who want to understand and forecast the development of China’s ETS. It includes a wealth of descriptions and explanations of Chinese government policies involving carbon emissions control, making it a unique resource.

The format of this monograph is three essays, which we arrived at after spending a year writing over one hundred pages of what we even tually realized was a tedious reworking of old material. So we started over determined to write something new. At first we thought this approach might not work as a coherent mono graph, which is why we chose the essay format rather than chapters. As it turns out, there is a common thread—namely the directional distance function, which also gave us our title. As you shall see, the directional distance function includes traditional distance functions and efficiency measures as special cases providing a unifying framework for existing productivity and efficiency measures. It is also flexible enough to open up new areas in productivity and efficiency analysis such as environmen tal and aggregation issues. That we did not see this earlier is humbling; a student at a recent conference raised his hand and asked 'Why didn't you start with the directional distance function in the first place? In deed. This manuscript is intended to make up for our earlier oversights. This monograph contains papers coauthored with Wen-Fu Lee and Osman Zaim and one paper written by two former students, Hiroyuki Fukuyama and Bill Weber. We thank them for their contributions. An other former student, Jim Logan (Logi) read and critiqued the manu script for which we are grateful.