The Clean Development Mechanism in China: Institutional Perspectives on Governance

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has grown into a central feature of the global carbon market. Besides a range of normative and evaluative research into the CDM, scholars have applied international relations perspectives in which the CDM has been analysed as an example of global governance, engaging multiple actors across administrative levels. This paper focuses on a national government and how its activities affect the CDM market. We draw on an empirical case study of China to demonstrate how governmental action can be understood in light of national institutional factors, defined as normative, cognitive or regulative elements. The paper describes and explains the extensiveness of Chinese government action regarding the CDM and discusses its consequences for the market.

[1]  G. Benecke.  Success factors for the effective implementation of renewable energy options for rural electrification in India–Potentials of the CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM , 2008 .

[2]  S. Sirohi.  CDM: Is it a ‘win–win’ strategy for rural poverty alleviation in India? , 2007 .

[3]  Andrew Jordan,et al.  New Instruments of Environmental Governance , 2003 .

[4]  Joakim Nordqvist,et al.  Closing the Legitimacy Gap in Global Environmental Governance? Lessons from the Emerging CDM Market , 2009, Global Environmental Politics.

[5]  Sangbum Shin.  The domestic side of the clean development mechanism: the case of China , 2010 .

[6]  Aseem Prakash,et al.  Bargains Old and New: Multinational Corporations in Global Governance , 2003, Business and Politics.

[7]  Karen Holm Olsen,et al.  The clean development mechanism’s contribution to sustainable development: a review of the literature , 2007 .

[8]  W. Powell,et al.  The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis , 1993 .

[9]  Yann Ménière,et al.  The Clean Development Mechanism and the International Diffusion of Technologies: An Empirical Study , 2008 .

[10]  P. Pattberg,et al.  Beyond the public and private divide: remapping transnational climate governance in the 21st century , 2008 .

[11]  K. Thelen.  Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences: HOW INSTITUTIONS EVOLVE , 2003 .

[12]  Malin Mobjörk,et al.  Sustainable funding? How funding agencies frame science for sustainable development , 2006 .

[13]  Sian Barber,et al.  Institutions and Organisations , 2013 .

[14]  G. O’Brien,et al.  Sustainable development: mapping different approaches , 2005 .

[15]  ZhongXiang Zhang,et al.  Why has China not embraced a global cap-and-trade regime? , 2003 .

[16]  Axel Michaelowa.  CDM: Current status and possibilities for reform , 2005 .

[17]  Axel Michaelowa,et al.  Additionality and Sustainable Development Issues Regarding CDM Projects in Energy Efficiency Sector , 2006 .

[18]  M. Betsill,et al.  Transnational Networks and Global Environmental Governance: The Cities for Climate Protection Program , 2004 .

[19]  W. Espeland,et al.  Pollution Futures: Commensuration, Commodification and the Market for Air , 2002 .

[20]  F. Soltau.  Fairness in International Climate Change Law and Policy , 2009 .

[21]  Grahame F. Thompson,et al.  Globalization in Question. The International Economy and the Possibilities of Governance , 1996 .

[22]  David L. Levy,et al.  Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry , 2002, Business and Politics.

[23]  Sigrid Quack,et al.  Globalization and institutions : redefining the rules of the economic game , 2003 .

[24]  Tobias S. Schmidt,et al.  Performance of renewable energy technologies under the CDM , 2010 .

[25]  A. Kolk,et al.  The Evolution of Chinese Policies and Governance Structures on Environment, Energy and Climate , 2010 .

[26]  Grahame F. Thompson,et al.  Globalization in Question , 1996 .

[27]  Molin Huo,et al.  China's wind industry: policy lessons for domestic government interventions and international support , 2009 .

[28]  D. MacKenzie.  Making things the same: Gases, emission rights and the politics of carbon markets , 2009 .

[29]  Axel Michaelowa,et al.  CDM potential of bagasse cogeneration in India , 2007 .

[30]  Liliana B. Andonova,et al.  Transnational Climate Governance , 2009, Global Environmental Politics.

[31]  A. Engels.  Transnational Governance: Market creation and transnational rule-making: The case of CO2 emissions trading , 2006 .

[32]  Marie-Laure Djelic,et al.  Transnational Governance: Institutional Dynamics of Regulation , 2008 .

[33]  Andrew J. Hoffman,et al.  Carbon Strategies: How Leading Companies Are Reducing Their Climate Change Footprint , 2007 .

[34]  Charlotte Streck,et al.  Making Markets Work: A Review of CDM Performance and the Need for Reform , 2008 .

[35]  L. Hooghe,et al.  European integration from the 1980s: State-centric v. multi-level governance , 1996 .

[36]  Heleen de Coninck,et al.  Technology transfer in the Clean Development Mechanism , 2007 .

[37]  Philip G. Cerny,et al.  Rethinking World Politics: A Theory of Transnational Neopluralism , 2010 .

[38]  Karen Holm Olsen,et al.  Sustainable development benefits of clean development mechanism projects: A new methodology for sustainability assessment based on text analysis of the project design documents submitted for validation , 2008 .

[39]  Bertrand Hamaide,et al.  Certified Emissions Reduction Weights for Improved CDM Projects , 2011 .

[40]  S. Alam,et al.  Framework Convention on Climate Change , 1993 .

[41]  Karin Bckstrand.  Accountability of Networked Climate Governance: The Rise of Transnational Climate Partnerships , 2008, Global Environmental Politics.

[42]  B. Dawson,et al.  UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE (UNFCCC) , 2008 .

[43]  Huan Zhang,et al.  Translating a Global Issue Into Local Priority China's Local Government Response to Climate Change , 2008 .

[44]  Philip G. Cerny,et al.  Rethinking World Politics , 2010 .

[45]  John W. Meyer,et al.  Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[46]  G. Han,et al.  A balancing act : China’s role in climate change , 2009 .

[47]  D. Eleanor Westney.  Imitation and innovation : the transfer of Western organizational patterns to Meiji Japan , 1989 .

[48]  I. Bache,et al.  Multi-level governance , 2004 .

[49]  Katarina Buhr.  Bringing aviation into the EU emissions trading scheme: institutional entrepreneurship at windows of opportunity , 2008 .

[50]  Christopher Sutter,et al.  Does the current Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) deliver its sustainable development claim? An analysis of officially registered CDM projects , 2007 .

[51]  M. Toffel,et al.  Stakeholders and Environmental Management Practices: An Institutional Framework , 2004 .

[52]  M. Djelic,et al.  Transnational Governance: Marketization: From intellectual agenda to global policy-making , 2006 .

[53]  M. Finnemore,et al.  National Interests in International Society , 1996 .

[54]  Heather A. Haveman,et al.  Organizational Environments in Flux: The Impact of Regulatory Punctuations on Organizational Domains, CEO Succession, and Performance , 2001 .

[55]  Liesbet Hooghe,et al.  Cohesion Policy and European Integration: Building Multi-Level Governance , 1997 .

[56]  M. Enright,et al.  China Into the Future: Making Sense of the World's Most Dynamic Economy , 2007 .

[57]  Florens Flues,et al.  What determines UN approval of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries? , 2010 .

[58]  J. Bensedrine,et al.  Multilateral Rulemaking: Transatlantic Struggles Around Genetically Modified Food , 2003 .

[59]  Emma Paulsson,et al.  A review of the CDM literature: from fine-tuning to critical scrutiny? , 2009 .

[60]  G. Morgan.  Transnational actors, transnational institutions, transnational spaces: the role of law firms in the internationalization of competition regulation , 2006 .