Green Theory in Environmental Policy Making in China Javier Ghahreman International Relations Dept. of Global Political Studies -Bachelor programme – IR103L 15 credits thesis Autumn 2018-81400-International Relations III/2018 Supervisor: Scott McIver Abstract Climate change has been a topic of discussion for quite some time now. International Relations Theory, which is widely used to study the politics of the world also has a subfield of Green Theory in IR which concerns itself with world politics in a combination of the environment. This study has been conducted as part of an investigation to study the effects of green theories on green policymaking, specifically in the case of China. For the study, a qualitative study was conducted where trends of environmental governance related results were examined to draw a conclusion to the research questions. This study is in hope to present the case of China which ranks among the most contaminated nation and is also a major contributor to the global environmental crisis of ecological damage. It presents how China has been able to turn the tables and has become a case exemplar instead for the world to follow in environment protection owing to strong laws and implementation by its government. Keywords – “green policy”, “green theory”, “IR”, “China”, “environmental governance” Total Words - 14332 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The rising challenge of Environmental Conservation.................................................. 1 1.2 Theorical framework and IR relevance ........................................................................ 3 1.3 Research Aim .................................................................................................................. 4 1.4 Research Objectives ....................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 5 1.6 Research Rationale ......................................................................................................... 5 2. Literature Review...................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 International Theories and origin of Green Theory .................................................... 7 2.2 International Relations, Environment and Green Theory – the challenges ............... 9 2.3 Environmental Governance ......................................................................................... 13 2.4 Environmental Policy Implementation Challenges in China .................................... 15 2.5 Literature Gap .............................................................................................................. 16 3. Research Methodology ............................................................................................................ 17 3.1 Method Outline ............................................................................................................. 17 3.2 Case Selection ................................................................................................................ 17 3.3 Research Philosophy ..................................................................................................... 18 3.4 Research Approach ...................................................................................................... 19 3.5 Research Design ............................................................................................................ 20 3.6 Data collection process ................................................................................................. 20 4. Analaysis and Data Findings .................................................................................................. 21 4.1 Is green theory an important facet to consider when making environmental policies? 21 4.2 How relevant is Green theory in China’s environmental policymaking process? ... 25 4.3 The success of China’s environmental governance is not just dependent on adherence to green norms. What may be the other factors that could make it a success? ..... 30 5. Conclusion, Recommendation and Limitations .................................................................... 38 6. Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 40 1. Introduction 1.1 The rising challenge of Environmental Conservation Today the world is more complex and dynamic in behavior than any other time in recent past. Some say, people nowadays live in a constant worldwide malady, in a disorganized global framework, which even the most cynical ones were not ready to foresee after the end of the Cold War, since the present international order is not any category of that being unipolar, bipolar and not even multipolar (Sheppard, 2012). There is still no world government - despite the fact that, a nascent worldwide administration framework is evolving gradually. The way that the US has not been able to manage the world in the same manner in which it did in the 1990s, given the rise of new powers in the global field, appears to make it exceptionally difficult to recognize present power relations. Moreover, self-contradictorily, globalization is encouraging the resurgence of patriotism. According to few scholars (Krause and Renwick, 2016), this is because the rising monetary forces seek political powers through national re-affirmation as well as Western forces, to be specific in Europe, are starting to handle the ascent of patriot, bigot and xenophobic powers because of the failure to adapt effectively to the money related emergencies. Nevertheless, the universal network faces numerous worldwide issues, for example, the ones identified with the ecology, and except if it participates to dissolve them, the disorder may turn out to be significantly more noteworthy than what has been, as of late; observed (Baylis, Smith and Owens, 2017). Considering the colossal issue which can torment the worldwide framework without genuine participation systems in the following years and decades, the present reality cannot be regarded as confused, as what follows next, could possibly be more regrettable. Ecological issues, and the ones identified with the abuse of natural assets specifically spread worldwide, both in their pith and size of activity, and subsequently, the eventual fate of mankind generally relies upon the capacity to make a powerful mechanism for multilateral administration. Along these lines, one can contend that the world will move towards another worldwide order or disorder dependent on ecological difficulties and on the capacity or incapacity to manage them. It hence truly pointed out that globalization is a double-edged sword of the twenty-first century. 1 In a quite interconnected world that people live in, changes in different parts of the world are progressively felt nearer to home, both specifically through the effects of worldwide ecological changes, or in a roundabout way through escalated financial repercussions. Huge numbers of the nations that are most vulnerable to environmental changes are underdeveloped or developing countries. Frequently these nations are very reliant on atmosphere, for example, most of their national incomes get generated through activities of cultivation or even angling. Their adaptation limit fluctuates, yet is frequently fairly low, specifically, because of diligent neediness. Biodiversity has kept on declining comprehensively notwithstanding a couple of empowering accomplishments and expanded strategic activities. Even, the worldwide rate of species termination is heightening and is currently evaluated to be up to 1000 times the natural rate. The proof is only getting bigger that basic environment administrations are under great weight all over the world. As per one estimate, around one-fourth of the potential net essential production has been transformed by people, either through direct farming activities (53%) or through land-use instigated changes (40%) or human-actuated fires (7%) (Sheppard, 2012). Such figures ought to be treated with alert, they do give a sign of the significant effect of people on regular environments. It is the world's poor that endure the worst effects of biodiversity misfortune, as they are generally most straightforwardly dependent on the biological community administrations. Increments in neediness and disparity are probably going to additionally fuel strife and flimsiness in districts that are as of now characterized by frequent fragile administrative structures. Also, lessened genomic variety in harvests and cultivars infers future misfortunes of monetary and social advantages for countries in such serious zones as food grain generation and modern-day medicinal services. Worldwide extraction of natural assets from biological systems and mines developed pretty much consistently in the course of recent years, from 40 billion tons in 1980 to 58 billion tons in 2005. Asset extraction is unevenly dispersed over the world, with Asia representing the biggest portion as of in 2005 (48% of aggregate tonnage, contrasted with Europe's 13%) (Mochizuki and Ollapally, 2016). During this period, a comparative decoupling of worldwide asset extraction and financial development occurred: