TY - JOUR

T1 - Local governance for climate mitigation: comparative study between China and Japan

AU - Liu, Lingxuan

AU - Matsuno, Shotaro

AU - Zhang, Bing

AU - Liu, Beibei

AU - Young, Oran

PY - 2013/6

Y1 - 2013/6

N2 - With this paper we provide a comparative study of local climate mitigation from both China and Japan, in the context of pessimistic international regimes to achieve significant results on climate mitigation. We compare the political systems, institutional arrangements, and local actors in local climate mitigation through a policy cycle analysis. We find that climate initiatives in the two countries have inherited the political characteristics of traditional environmental management within a centralized administrative system; moreover, these initiatives also reflect the emergence of local governance. Owing to similar political cultures but differing roles of local governments, both countries are making progress with respect to the agenda-setting and policy formation stages, but are facing greater obstacles regarding implementation and evaluation. The monocentric local governance in China results in an easy but irrational planning process, while the powerless local agents in Japan cannot hardly promote bolder campaigns for energy industries.Current administrative systems created by decades of local environmental problem solving are no longer adaptive enough to facilitate the bottom-up emergence of local mitigating activities. Local governments and administration systems should be adaptive regarding capacity building and institutional innovation to improve local governance on climate mitigation

AB - With this paper we provide a comparative study of local climate mitigation from both China and Japan, in the context of pessimistic international regimes to achieve significant results on climate mitigation. We compare the political systems, institutional arrangements, and local actors in local climate mitigation through a policy cycle analysis. We find that climate initiatives in the two countries have inherited the political characteristics of traditional environmental management within a centralized administrative system; moreover, these initiatives also reflect the emergence of local governance. Owing to similar political cultures but differing roles of local governments, both countries are making progress with respect to the agenda-setting and policy formation stages, but are facing greater obstacles regarding implementation and evaluation. The monocentric local governance in China results in an easy but irrational planning process, while the powerless local agents in Japan cannot hardly promote bolder campaigns for energy industries.Current administrative systems created by decades of local environmental problem solving are no longer adaptive enough to facilitate the bottom-up emergence of local mitigating activities. Local governments and administration systems should be adaptive regarding capacity building and institutional innovation to improve local governance on climate mitigation

KW - comparative study

KW - climate mitigation

KW - local governance

U2 - 10.1068/c11246

DO - 10.1068/c11246

M3 - Journal article

VL - 31

SP - 475

EP - 489

JO - Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy

JF - Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy

SN - 0263-774X

IS - 3

ER -