The Politico-Institutional Influence on Low Carbon Development in Chinese Cities: the Case of Guangzhou

The Politico-institutional Influence on Low Carbon Development in Chinese Cities: the Case of Guangzhou A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in Planning and Environmental Management Faculty of Humanities 2019 Qianqian Wei School of Environment, Education and Development BLANK PAGE TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. 9 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... 10 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 11 DECLARATION ............................................................................................................... 13 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................................. 15 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................... 17 ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................ 21 1.1 RESEARCH CONTEXT .............................................................................................. 22 Environmental discourses and climate change mitigation .............................................. 22 The global response to climate change .......................................................................... 25 Multilevel governance and urban carbon governance ................................................... 27 Climate change mitigation in China ................................................................................ 29 1.2 RESEARCH RATIONAL AND SIGNIFICANCE ................................................................. 33 1.3 RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................................ 35 1.4 THESIS STRUCTURE ................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................. 37 2.1 SYSTEMIC TRANSITION: ELEMENTS, PROCESSES AND DYNAMICS .............................. 38 Innovation system theory ............................................................................................... 39 The multi-level perspective of socio-technical transition ............................................... 42 Co-evolutionary theory ................................................................................................... 45 Typologies of transition pathways .................................................................................. 47 Systemic approaches to low carbon development: an evaluation ................................. 52 2.2 THE ROLE OF PUBLIC POLICY AND GOVERNANCE IN SYSTEMIC CHANGE .................. 55 Transition management .................................................................................................. 56 3 Governance arrangement and socio-technical transition – two ideal types .................. 59 Multi-level governance ................................................................................................... 64 Governing low carbon transition: an evaluation ............................................................ 69 2.3 STRUCTURE-AGENCY AND INSTITUTIONAL THEORY ................................................. 72 Structure-agency theory ................................................................................................. 72 Institutional theory ......................................................................................................... 76 New-Institutionalism in different forms ......................................................................... 77 The persistence and change of institution ...................................................................... 82 The implication of structural-agency and institution theory .......................................... 86 CHAPTER 3: BACKGROUND OF CHINESE URBAN CARBON GOVERNANCE ............. 89 3.1 THE CHINESE GOVERNING SYSTEM: ORGANISATIONS, ACTORS AND INSTITUTIONAL TOOLS .......................................................................................................................... 90 Organisational set-up at the national level ..................................................................... 90 Five-Year-Plans (FYPs) ..................................................................................................... 92 Policy process ................................................................................................................. 93 The ‘carrots and stick’ approach to cadre management ................................................. 96 The role of non-governmental experts in policy making ................................................ 98 Civic society .................................................................................................................... 99 Guanxi ........................................................................................................................... 102 3.2 CHANGE OF THE INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT: NEW DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE AGENDA .................................................... 103 New development paradigm – towards a more balanced development path ............. 103 The emergence of a climate change agenda ................................................................ 105 3.3 THE NATIONAL POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION ............... 108 Major policies and programmes related to climate change mitigation ........................ 108 Statutory policies .......................................................................................................... 113 Economic incentives and market-based policies .......................................................... 117 4 The evolution of climate change mitigation policy framework: from 2005 to 2017 ..... 119 CHAPTER SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 128 CHAPTER 4: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........... 129 4.1 THEORETICAL PROPOSITIONS AND RELATED METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES .................. 130 4.2 THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................... 132 The change of policy framework at the national level .................................................. 134 Governance dynamics for low carbon transition .......................................................... 135 The characteristics of urban low carbon development ................................................ 139 Politico-institutional influence for low carbon transition ............................................. 140 4.3 RESEARCH AIM, OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS ....................................................... 143 4.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN ........................................... 146 Case study strategy ....................................................................................................... 146 Case selection and introduction ................................................................................... 148 Research design and data collection ............................................................................ 153 Data analysis ................................................................................................................. 160 Ethical consideration .................................................................................................... 163 CHAPTER 5: GOVERNANCE DYNAMICS BEHIND THE INSTITUTIONALISATION OF LOW CARBON DEVELOPMENT IN GUANGZHOU ........................................... 164 5.1 LOW CARBON POLICY COMMUNITY AND KEY ACTORS ............................................ 165 Municipal functional government departments and their afflicted organisations ....... 165 The formation of a low carbon policy community ........................................................ 170 5.2 GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS AND INTERACTION CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT GOVERNANCE PROCESSES ............................................................................................ 174 Central-local (vertical) interaction ................................................................................ 174 Intragovernmental interaction ...................................................................................... 182 Intergovernmental interaction ..................................................................................... 187 Intercity interactions ..................................................................................................... 194 5 5.3 THE GOVERNANCE MECHANISMS BEHIND THE INSTITUTIONALISATION OF LOW CARBON DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................................. 197 Actor interaction in different governance processes: a summary ................................ 197 National-led reform - intragovernmental coordination - involvement of nongovernmental actors ............................................................................................... 198 Intragovernmental coordination-involvement of nongovernmental actors-centrally entrusting programmes ...............................................................................................

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