25 June 2010

GPPi publishes article on China’s bureaucratic politics of climate change

GPPi Research Associate Björn Conrad published an article entitled "Bureaucratic Land Rush – China’s Administrative Battles in the Arena of Climate Change Policy" in the Spring 2010 edition of the Harvard Asia Quarterly.

Over a period of a few years, China’s government has turned its approach to climate change upside down; moving from a position of dilatory inaction and substantial climate change skepticism to one marked by an ambitious strategy to put China on a path of carbon-reduced economic growth. The article explores how this policy change resonates with China’s intricate bureaucratic system: how administrative entities react to the emerging climate agenda and how their adaptation in turn shapes the development of this agenda.

The article provides an actor-specific account of China’s administrative battles in the arena of climate change over the last two decades, starting from the initial phase of low-intensity bureaucratic squabbling to the proliferation of climate-related administrative entities and the bureaucratic shifts and turf struggles that accompanied the rise of climate change to the top of China’s political agenda.

The observation of bureaucratic structures, actors’ agendas, and changing distributions of administrative influence is only one aspect of China’s political decision-making. However, the example of China’s climate change policy illustrates that a look at bureaucratic dynamics can provide a valuable additional layer of analysis.

To read the article, please click here.

For further information please contact Björn Conrad

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