IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v8y2015i11p12367-13264d59251.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Governing China’s Clean Energy Transition: Policy Reforms, Flexible Implementation and the Need for Empirical Investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Lo

    (Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China)

Abstract

In the ten years since committing to clean energy transition, China has formulated a large number of policies and programs to achieve some very ambitious targets. This paper argues that the dearth of empirical studies concerning the implementation of these new policies and programs has created a knowledge gap between official policy documents, which are vague and lacking in specifics, and official policy outcomes, which are unreliable. In particular, the merits and limitations of flexible implementation with regard to desirable outcomes need to be debated and clarified. This paper calls for more empirical investigation in four areas as a starting point: (1) the nature and extent of flexibility in the implementation; (2) implementation strategies and their impacts; (3) factors that shape the behavior of local officials responsible for implementation; and (4) the relationship between the central-local relation and policy implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Lo, 2015. "Governing China’s Clean Energy Transition: Policy Reforms, Flexible Implementation and the Need for Empirical Investigation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-10, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:8:y:2015:i:11:p:12367-13264:d:59251
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/8/11/12367/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/8/11/12367/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhao, Xiaoli & Zhang, Sufang & Yang, Rui & Wang, Mei, 2012. "Constraints on the effective utilization of wind power in China: An illustration from the northeast China grid," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 4508-4514.
    2. Liu, Yingqi & Kokko, Ari, 2013. "Who does what in China’s new energy vehicle industry?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 21-29.
    3. Xu, Y.C., 2014. "The struggle for safe nuclear expansion in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 21-29.
    4. Lema, Adrian & Ruby, Kristian, 2007. "Between fragmented authoritarianism and policy coordination: Creating a Chinese market for wind energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3879-3890, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kevin Lo & Daphne Ngar-Yin Mah & Guihua Wang & Michael KH Leung & Alex Y Lo & Peter Hills, 2018. "Barriers to adopting solar photovoltaic systems in Hong Kong," Energy & Environment, , vol. 29(5), pages 649-663, August.
    2. Ye Fan & Zhicheng Zhang & Xiaoli Zhao & Haitao Yin, 2018. "Interaction between Industrial Policy and Stock Price Volatility: Evidence from China’s Power Market Reform," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, May.
    3. Gangjun Gong & Zhening Zhang & Xinyu Zhang & Nawaraj Kumar Mahato & Lin Liu & Chang Su & Haixia Yang, 2020. "Electric Power System Operation Mechanism with Energy Routers Based on QoS Index under Blockchain Architecture," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lam, J.C.K. & Woo, C.K. & Kahrl, F. & Yu, W.K., 2013. "What moves wind energy development in China? Show me the money!," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 423-429.
    2. Gosens, Jorrit & Lu, Yonglong, 2014. "Prospects for global market expansion of China’s wind turbine manufacturing industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 301-318.
    3. Zhang, Sufang & Andrews-Speed, Philip & Zhao, Xiaoli, 2013. "Political and institutional analysis of the successes and failures of China’s wind power policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 331-340.
    4. Zhao, Xiaoli & Li, Shujie & Zhang, Sufang & Yang, Rui & Liu, Suwei, 2016. "The effectiveness of China's wind power policy: An empirical analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 269-279.
    5. Lam, J. & Cheung, L. & Han, Y. & Wang, S., 2018. "China’s Response to Nuclear Safety Post-Fukushima: Genuine or Rhetoric?," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1866, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Ming, Zeng & Lilin, Peng & Qiannan, Fan & Yingjie, Zhang, 2016. "Trans-regional electricity transmission in China: Status, issues and strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 572-583.
    7. Chen, Hao & Cui, Jian & Song, Feng & Jiang, Zhigao, 2022. "Evaluating the impacts of reforming and integrating China's electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    8. Cui, Yu & Khan, Sufyan Ullah & Li, Zhixue & Zhao, Minjuan, 2021. "Environmental effect, price subsidy and financial performance: Evidence from Chinese new energy enterprises," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    9. Cailou Jiang & Ying Zhang & Maoliang Bu & Weishu Liu, 2018. "The Effectiveness of Government Subsidies on Manufacturing Innovation: Evidence from the New Energy Vehicle Industry in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-11, May.
    10. Zhao, Xiaoli & Cai, Qiong & Zhang, Sufang & Luo, Kaiyan, 2017. "The substitution of wind power for coal-fired power to realize China's CO2 emissions reduction targets in 2020 and 2030," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 164-178.
    11. Liao, Zhongju, 2016. "The evolution of wind energy policies in China (1995–2014): An analysis based on policy instruments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 464-472.
    12. Zhang, Yin-Fang & Gao, Ping, 2016. "Integrating environmental considerations into economic regulation of China's electricity sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 62-71.
    13. He Li & Kevin Lo & Mark Wang & Pingyu Zhang & Longyi Xue, 2016. "Industrial Energy Consumption in Northeast China under the Revitalisation Strategy: A Decomposition and Policy Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-13, July.
    14. Zhang, Sufang & Andrews-Speed, Philip & Li, Sitao, 2018. "To what extent will China's ongoing electricity market reforms assist the integration of renewable energy?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 165-172.
    15. Jianlong Wu & Zhongji Yang & Xiaobo Hu & Hongqi Wang & Jing Huang, 2018. "Exploring Driving Forces of Sustainable Development of China’s New Energy Vehicle Industry: An Analysis from the Perspective of an Innovation Ecosystem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-24, December.
    16. Li, X. & Hubacek, K. & Siu, Y.L., 2012. "Wind power in China – Dream or reality?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 51-60.
    17. Suh, Jung Woo & Sohn, So Young & Lee, Bo Kyeong, 2020. "Patent clustering and network analyses to explore nuclear waste management technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    18. Pei, Wei & Chen, Yanning & Sheng, Kun & Deng, Wei & Du, Yan & Qi, Zhiping & Kong, Li, 2015. "Temporal-spatial analysis and improvement measures of Chinese power system for wind power curtailment problem," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 148-168.
    19. Weixing Liu & Hongtao Yi, 2020. "What Affects the Diffusion of New Energy Vehicles Financial Subsidy Policy? Evidence from Chinese Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, January.
    20. Hu, Xing & Yu, Shiwei & Fang, Xu & Ovaere, Marten, 2023. "Which combinations of renewable energy policies work better? Insights from policy text synergies in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:8:y:2015:i:11:p:12367-13264:d:59251. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.