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China and climate justice: moving beyond statism

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Abstract

China is the largest national source of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution causing climate change. However, despite some rhetorical progress at the 2011 Durban climate conference, it has consistently rejected calls to take on binding targets to reduce its GHG emissions. The Chinese Government has understandably argued that developed states are responsible for the predominant share of historical GHG emissions, have greater capacity to pay for the cost of mitigation, and indeed have an obligation to do so before China is required to take action. However, due to the explosive growth in its GHG emissions, China is now in a position to single-handedly dash any hope of climate stability if its position does not change. On the diplomatic level, other big polluters, particularly the United States, will not enter into new binding agreements to reduce substantially their own GHG emissions without a credible commitment from China. Challenging the “statist” framing of the climate justice, this article explores the possibility for China to take on a leadership role in climate change diplomacy in a way that allows it to maintain its long-standing principled resistance to binding national emissions targets while making meaningful progress toward combating the problem. Action by China’s rapidly growing affluent classes may hold the key to long-term climate stability.

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Abbreviations

ATP:

Ability-to-pay principle

BPP:

Beneficiary-pays principle

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

EMCP:

Equalized-mitigation-costs principle

GHG:

Greenhouse gas

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

kWh:

Kilowatt-hour

OECD:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PPP:

Polluter-pays principle

UNFCCC:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

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Acknowledgments

Research was fully supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (General Research Fund Project No. HKIEd 340309, Principal Investigator: Paul G. Harris). Rasmus Karlsson gratefully acknowledges support from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Paul G. Harris & Alice S. Y. Chow

  2. Department of U-Peace, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea

    Rasmus Karlsson

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  1. Paul G. Harris
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  2. Alice S. Y. Chow
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  3. Rasmus Karlsson
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Correspondence to Paul G. Harris.

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Harris, P.G., Chow, A.S.Y. & Karlsson, R. China and climate justice: moving beyond statism. Int Environ Agreements 13, 291–305 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-012-9189-7

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