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[1Z127] Changes in China's Actions in Global Climate Change Governance: From the Perspective of Changing Perceptions of Climate Security
Keywords:Climate Change Governance, Climate Security, Global Governance
As the world's second largest economy and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China's actions in global climate change governance have become increasingly aggressive. Prior literature generally analyzes China's actions in climate change governance from the perspective of pursuing national interests. However, there are few studies that systematically and dynamically examine how China has changed in its pursuit of national interests. In recent years, the Chinese government has recognized the issue of climate change as a security issue in a broad sense, and has shown a stance to address it as "climate security" in the international community. Therefore, this paper raises the question of "how has the change in perception of climate change security had an impact on the change in China's actions in global climate governance?" and focuses on China's perception of climate security to conduct an empirical study.
We use process-traced causal reasoning to determine China's involvement in international and domestic climate governance since the turn of the 21st century. The materials used are information collected from prior literature on China's involvement in global climate governance and from Chinese political documents, statements by state leaders and negotiators, and documents from international negotiations on climate change.
The paper concludes that China's perception of climate security, which are the cause of its changes in actions, has transformed into three stages, from a "neglect phase" to a "formative phase" and then a "transition phase". In the "neglect phase", China neglected climate security, including environmental protection, in favour of the national interest of economic development in order to deal with domestic poverty. Having achieved rapid economic growth at the expense of environmental protection, China has come to face growing environmental pollution problems at domestic level and pressure from the international community to accept responsibility for curbing and reducing GHGs emissions. Since 2015, amid a slowdown in China's domestic economy and growing competition between the U.S. and China over international influence, in order to gain a better international image and leadership, China has strengthened its awareness of climate security. As a result, China has turned its attention to global action and starts to provide international support and public goods in financial and technical terms, for South-South Cooperation within the United Nations framework and the China-led framework around climate change action.
We use process-traced causal reasoning to determine China's involvement in international and domestic climate governance since the turn of the 21st century. The materials used are information collected from prior literature on China's involvement in global climate governance and from Chinese political documents, statements by state leaders and negotiators, and documents from international negotiations on climate change.
The paper concludes that China's perception of climate security, which are the cause of its changes in actions, has transformed into three stages, from a "neglect phase" to a "formative phase" and then a "transition phase". In the "neglect phase", China neglected climate security, including environmental protection, in favour of the national interest of economic development in order to deal with domestic poverty. Having achieved rapid economic growth at the expense of environmental protection, China has come to face growing environmental pollution problems at domestic level and pressure from the international community to accept responsibility for curbing and reducing GHGs emissions. Since 2015, amid a slowdown in China's domestic economy and growing competition between the U.S. and China over international influence, in order to gain a better international image and leadership, China has strengthened its awareness of climate security. As a result, China has turned its attention to global action and starts to provide international support and public goods in financial and technical terms, for South-South Cooperation within the United Nations framework and the China-led framework around climate change action.
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