Energy Consumption Policies in Shanxi Province, China

Project Context

In China, many local government officials are reluctant to implement national environmental protection policies at the cost of sacrificing the rate of economic growth. As environmental policy preferences of local government officials generally decline with lower levels of development (‘environmental Kuznets curve’), this is particularly the case in the less developed areas of central and western China. While environmental protection has generally achieved legitimacy among local cadre, in these less developed regions, this environmental awareness often remains an abstraction, and does not consistently shape policy preferences.

Project Objective

This reaserch project aims to analyse why some local governments are more successful than others in enforcing national climate change mitigation policies, given similar levels of economic development. Specifically, this project focuses on the influence of variations in local bureaucratic structure on the enforcement of environmental policies.

The assumption is that environmental policies are more likely to be enforced in regions in which
(a) multiple stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process (e.g., environmental NGOs, business associations, independent research institutes, environmental consulting firms);
(b) bureaucrats hold a personal commitment to environmental protection or
(c) cadre evaluations have clear targets with respect to climate change mitigation.

The team will conduct fieldwork during summer 2010. Four municipalities will be visited in Shanxi Province in central China. Shanxi is known for its coal production, and is an interesting case as there is a large variation in environmental policies among its 11 municipal level cities. The selected municipalities are similar in terms of economic development and geography, however while some have not fully enforced national environmental standards, others have resisted this temptation. This project looks at the key determinants of such variation in the implementation climate change mitigation policies.

Project Output

This project analyses local governments and the variation in energy consumption saving practices in Shanxi province in China. The results will be discussed with Emergia partners and published in relevant journals and books.