Climate governance in China: a multi-actor perspective

As the world's most populous country and the second largest economy, China's approaches to governing sustainable development have important implications for our future. Given the country's authoritarian regime, much of the existing discussion believes that sustainability governance in China is characterised by the country's authoritarian system, with the state imposing regulations. But without careful assessment of relevant actors and institutions, this view can be incomplete at best, and even misleading. How do different actors shape sustainability governance in China, and what are key governance challenges? Using the example of climate change, we show that a range of actors are involved in China's climate governance system and despite the dominant role of the state in setting overall goals, non-state actors can be instrumental in initiating various initiatives. Meanwhile, China's scale and fragmentation within the state can add a burden of coordination among relevant actors and therefore become barriers to achieving effective governance.