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Towards a New Model of Sustainable Energy Development?

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Governing Sustainable Energies in China

Part of the book series: Politics and Development of Contemporary China ((PDCC))

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Abstract

This book contributes to the debate around environmental politics and policy by showing that, although decentralised politics has become, by consensus, the model for environmental governance (Hajer and Kesselring 1999; Blühdorn 2013), China’s renewable energy governance model represents an accidental competing model that challenges the orthodox model of environmental governance. This pattern was formed by large-scale centralised state intervention mechanisms which did not involve adopting the Western orthodoxy of participatory governance. China’s policy leaders may have simply seen it as an exclusive strategy motivated by self-preservation. However, this practice has unexpectedly extended beyond the default assumption of the inclusive mode of governance, allowing it—to some extent—to bypass the prolonged dilemma in environmental doctrine between efficiency and democracy, swiftly reaching desired objectives of renewable energy-related environmental policy.

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  1. Institute of Political Science Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Duisburg, Germany

    Geoffrey Chun-fung Chen

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Chen, G.Cf. (2016). Towards a New Model of Sustainable Energy Development?. In: Governing Sustainable Energies in China. Politics and Development of Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30969-9_7

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