See this link for a recent analysis of China's energy sector reform and the shift to ambitious mitigation policies: http://ideas.repec.org/p/een/ccepwp/1205.html
With substantive US mitigation paralysed by Congress for the near future, will China emerge as a global leader in mitigation over the coming decade? Does the world need China to take the lead on this issue?
Question
China's government is pursuing an ambitious set of domestic climate change mitigation policies. How will this affect international climate policy?
All Answers (1)
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In many ways China is an international leader in addressing climate change and is doing so in some very innovative ways. I think China also values the Kyoto process more than some developed countries who have pulled out of the second commitment period. However, if international leadership involves taking on legally binding emissions reduction targets for the second commitment period (as many seem to think it must), then no, I doubt China will do that any time soon. And while China is certainly leading in its domestic policies, the window of opportunity to keep warming within 2 degrees is closing rapidly. Hopefully China will continue to quickly ramp up its domestic policies, hopefully domestic policies will be enough to serve as an example to other major emitters over the next few years, and hopefully this will dispel once and for all the egregious myth that "China is not doing anything so why should we?"
