Regional legislation to address climate change in China: necessity and feasibility

• Pages: 536-551
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-05-2018-0046
• Published date: 19 August 2019
• Date: 19 August 2019
• Author: Jianwei Zhang,Xiaoyi Jiang,Xiaobin Pan
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change

Regional legislation to address

climate change in China: necessity

and feasibility

Jianwei Zhang

Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China

Xiaoyi Jiang

Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, and

Xiaobin Pan

Tianjin University of Economics and Finance, Tianjin, China

Abstract

Purpose –Legislation plays an essential role in addressing climate change in China. However, many

barriers to formulating national legislation to address climate change have so far prevented its enactment.

The bottom-up approach adoptedin the international climate regime sets a good example. Accordingly, the

purpose of this paper is to discuss the regional legislation to address climate change in China through

exploring the followingtwo questions: whether it is necessary to enact climate changelegislation at regional

level f‌irst and whether it is feasible to develop such regional legislation in the absence of national climate

change law.

Design/methodology/approach –This paper analyses the necessity and feasibility of regional

legislation to address climate change. Section 2 introduces the current legislative framework on

climate change in China. Section 3 investigates whether it is better to push the legislative agenda at

regional, rather than national level. Section 4 analyses the feasibility of establishing regional

legislative systems. Section 5 explores the key issues in formulating and promoting regional

legislation.

Findings –This paper concludesthat it is necessary and feasible to pilot regional legislation beforeenacting

nationallegislation. Under these circumstances, local governmentscan take the initiative to begin formulating

regionallegislation.

Originality/value –Addressing climate change needs immediate action and effective measures. It is,

thus, necessary to reconsider the approach that China should adopt when developing legislation on

climate change. This paper contributes to broadening current knowledge of regional climate change

legislation in China.

Keywords China, Climate change, Paris Agreement, National policy, Regional legislation

Paper type Research paper

© Jianwei Zhang, Xiaoyi Jiang and Xiaobin Pan. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This

article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may

reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and

non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full

terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

The authors gratefully acknowledge the f‌inancial support of the “National Key R&D Program of

China”(Grant no. 2018YFC0213600) and the Key Research Grant from the Key Research Institutes of

Humanities and Social Science, Ministry of Education of the P.R.C. (Grant no. 13JJD82001).

IJCCSM

11,4

536

Received29 May 2018

Revised6 September 2018

Accepted19 February 2019

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.11 No. 4, 2019

pp. 536-551

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-05-2018-0046

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/1756-8692.htm

1. Introduction

Climate changeis the most urgent and profoundly complexenvironment-related problemfor

the international community in this century. To promote international cooperation and

ensure the effective implementation of climate change agreements, the system of Intended

Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), applying a “bottom-up”approach, was

conf‌irmed by the landmark Paris Agreement of 2016. The INDCs are essentially the

backbone of the newclimate agreement. Distinguishedfrom the previous top-down strategy,

which relied on national governments to mandate emissions reductions, the essence of the

bottom-up approach is helping countries with different economic development and national

circumstances to identify appropriate actions aligned with their long-term development

goals. The action plan thereby provided overcomes the dilemma of international legislation

on climate change.

As the world’s second largest economy and the biggest GHGs emitter, China is under

great pressure to reduce emissions. China has submitted its INDCs and pledged to cut its

carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 per cent of the 2005 level by 2030[1]. These

INDCs commitments must be translated into immediate domestic reduction actions.

National legislation is often cited as being critical to a credible and effective international

response to climate change (Townshend, 2014). In its 2016 global legislation study, the

Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment identif‌ied the

existence of 854 climate change laws and policies globally, rising from only 54 laws and

policies in 1997 (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment,

2016). The legislation also plays an essentialrole in China, as it may establish the necessary

enforcement and accountability mechanisms to ensure effective implementation of climate

change mitigation and adaptation activities, giving them binding force, stability and

predictability. The importance of legislation in addressing climate change, China must

consider which approach it should adopt to realize its commitments through legislative

measures. As a result, China chooses a top-down strategyof formulating national law f‌irst.

The Chinese Government began drafting the Climate Change Law in early 2009, and is

constantly seeking to accelerate the legislative process for enacting this comprehensive

national law (National Development and Reform Commission, 2016;National Development

and Reform Commission, 2017). Despite recent progress on domestic climate change

legislation in some important areas, such as the Emission Trading System (ETS), the

Climate Change Law hasnot yet been enacted: a consequence of its slow legislative process.

Addressing climate change needs immediate action and effective measures. It is, thus,

necessary to reconsider the approach that China should adopt when developing legislation

on climate change. The bottom-upapproach adopted in the international climate regime sets

a good example. Facing the dilemma of formulating national legislation, another option for

China is to enact climate change legislation at the regional level f‌irst. Accordingly, this

article focuses on the regionallegislation to address climate change in China.

There is extensive literature discussing the legislation on climate change both in China

and abroad. Most overseas studies on the topicof China’s legislation are written in English

by Chinese scholars, and they provide an introduction to and overviews of China’s climate

laws (Shen, 2014;Zhou, 2017). Some scholars focus on legal strategies for climate change

(McDonald and Styles, 2014) and national legislation (Lacobuta et al., 2018;Fankhauser

et al.,2016). Moreover, there are numerous pieces on the multi-level governance for climate

change and regional policies or actions. For example, Peel et al. (2012) have written on

climate change law in an era of multi-level governance; Wolkingeret al. (2012) have written

on the implementation of Europe’s climate targets at the regional level; Lin (2012) have

discussed climategovernance in China. Despite the importance of legislationbeing generally

Climate

change in

China

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