Mitigating Capacity: Leaders, Coalitions and Climate Change Policy in China and India

Project Context

The discussion about how best to respond to climate change focusses mostly on the challenges of agreeing on targets for emissions reductions on a global level. Yet, to understand how states might respond to the imminent threat of climate change, we not only have to consider what policies shall be implemented but also the state’s capacity to actually implement those policies.

Project Objective

The research project seeks to better understand the state's capacity to implement climate change policies. To that end, it analyses the ways in which environmental policies are implemented in China and India at the sub-national level (province-level and below in China; state-level and below in India). It looks at the connections between the state and other actors, how they affect the implementation of environmental policy and how they are, in turn, affected by the growing environmental threat. The analysis will draw on six months of fieldwork in 2010, as well as government documents, statistical yearbooks, local gazetteers, interviews, and secondary literature.

Project Output

This project analyses the extent to which local governments in India and China are capable to implement policies to reduce carbon emissions. The results will be presented at LPDLEC events (www.lpdlec.org) and published in peer-reviewed journals.