Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T06:21:07.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Local Energy Efficiency Policy Implementation in China: Bridging the Gap between National Priorities and Local Interests*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2012

Genia Kostka  and
William Hobbs
Genia Kostka*
Affiliation:
Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
William Hobbs
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, Email: whobbs@ucsd.edu.
*
Email: geniakostka@gmail.com (Corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper analyses Chinese sub-national governments’ implementation strategies to meet national energy efficiency targets in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006–2010). Previous research has focused on the ways governance practices and decision-making structures shape implementation outcomes, yet very little attention has been given to what strategies local leaders actually employ to bridge national priorities with local interests. To illustrate how local leaders work politically, this paper highlights specific implementation methods officials use to strengthen formal incentives and create effective informal incentives to comply with energy efficiency mandates. The analysis is drawn from 53 interviews conducted in June and July of 2010 in Shanxi, a major coal-producing and energy-intensive province. Findings suggest that local government leaders conform to national directives by “bundling” the energy efficiency policy with policies of more pressing local importance or by “bundling” their energy efficiency objectives with the interests of groups with significant political influence. Ultimately, sub-national government officials frame policies in ways that give them legitimacy at the local level.

Keywords

policy implementationcentral–local relationsenergyinformal incentivesclimate changeChina
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 211 , September 2012 , pp. 765 - 785
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors are grateful for funding from the Developmental Leadership Program (DLP). The authors also wish to thank Shi Xiangying, Adrian Leftwich, Tom Harrison, Christine Polzin, Sarah Eaton and Kyoung Shin for helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

China Economic Weekly . 2007. “Shanxi jieneng jianghao taotai luohou ke bu ronghuan” (“Shanxi energy conservation and consumption reduction elimination of backward [production capacity] is pressing”), 10 December 2007, available at http://finance.sina.com.cn/china/dfjj/20071210/00124267955.shtml. Accessed on 16 September, 2010.Google Scholar
Economy, Elizabeth C. 2004. The River Runs Black: the Environmental Challenge to China's Future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Geng, Hua. 2009. “Shijian zai wu mei laoban?” (“Are coal bosses going to disappear from the earth?”). Nanfang zhoumo, 16 September 2009, available at http://www.infzm.com/content/34791. Accessed on 7 September 2010.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Guo, Zhong. 2010. “Danghao ‘meitan xinzheng’ shouhuzhe” (“A good guardian of the ‘coal new deal’”). Zhongguo caizheng bao, June 5, available at http://www.cfen.com.cn/web/cjb/2010-06/05/content_636949.htm. Accessed on 23 September 2010.Google Scholar
Guojia jingji maoyi weiyuan hui (National Economic and Trade Commission). 2003. Zhongxiao qiye biaozhun zanxing guiding (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Standard Interim Regulation), February 2003.Google Scholar
International Energy Agency (IEA). 2010. “China overtakes the United States to become world's largest energy consumer,” 20 July 2010, available at http://www.iea.org/index_info.asp?id=1479. Accessed 25 January 2011.Google Scholar
Johnson, Paul M. 2010. “Logrolling,” Glossary of Political Economic Terms, http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/logrolling. Accessed on 6 September 2010.Google Scholar
Kostka, Genia and William, Hobbs. forthcoming. “Embedded interests and the managerial local state: the political economy of methanol fuel-switching in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 22 (80).Google Scholar
Li, Xing. 2010. “Power cuts call for energy efficiency,” China Daily, 10 September 2010, available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-09/10/content_11286604.htm, accessed on 23 September 2010.Google Scholar
Lieberthal, Kenneth and Oksenberg, Michel. 1988. Policy-Making in China: Leaders, Structures, and Processes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matland, Richard. 1995. “Synthesizing the implementation literature: the ambiguity conflict model of policy implementation.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 5 (2), 145–174.Google Scholar
Meidan, Michal, Andrews-Speed, Philip, and Xin, Ma. 2009. “Shaping China's energy policy: actors and processes.” Journal of Contemporary China 18 (61) 591–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Development and Reform Commission. 2007. 11th Five-Year Plan of Coal Industry Development, (January 2007), available at http://www.gov.cn/gzdt/2007-01/22/content_503391.htm. Accessed on September 18, 2010.Google Scholar
Office of the State Council. 2010. “Wen Jiabao: Luoshi zeren quebao shixian ‘shiyiwu' de jieneng mubiao” (“Wen Jiabao: fulfill responsibilities to ensure realization of five-year plan energy intensity targets”), 6 May 2010, available at http://www.china.com.cn/policy/txt/2010-05/06/content_19978943.htm. Accessed on 18 September 2010.Google Scholar
Price, Lynn, Wang, Xuejun and Yun, Jiang. 2010. “The challenge of reducing energy-consumption of the top-1000 largest industrial enterprises in China.” Energy Policy 38 (11).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ran, Ran. 2009. Environmental Politics at Local Levels in China: Explaining Policy Implementation Gap and Assessing the Implications. PhD Diss., University of Duisburg-Essen.Google Scholar
Scrase, J. Ivan. and Ockwell, David. 2010. “The role of discourse and linguistic framing effects in sustaining high carbon energy policy: an accessible introduction.” Energy Policy 38 (5), 2225–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shanghai Zhangquan Bao. 2010. “13 dishi jieneng jianpai xingshi yanjun fagaiwei jinji tongzhi zai gao jingzhong” (“The energy savings and emissions reduction situation in 13 prefecture-level municipalities is grim: The NDRC emergency notification again sounds the alarm bell”), 8 September 2010, available at http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2010-09/18/c_12582559.htm. Accessed on September 23, 2010.Google Scholar
Shanxi Province Bureau of Statistics. 2009. Shanxi Statistical Yearbook. Shanxi renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Shanxi sheng jingji he xinxihua weiyuanhui. 2008, 2009, 2010. Shanxi sheng jingji he xinxihua weiyuanhui tongzhi 2008. 1; 2009. 1; 2010. 2. (Shanxi Province Economic and Information Commission Notice 2008.1; 2009.1; 2010. 2).Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel and O'Brien, Kevin. 2012. “Politics at the boundary: mixed signals and the Chinese state.” Modern China 38 (2) 175–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Rooij, Benjamin. 2006. “Implementation of Chinese environmental law: regular enforcement and political campaigns.” Development and Change 37 (1), 57–74.Google Scholar
Wang, Shaoguang. 2006. “Regulating death at coalmines: changing mode of governance in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 15 (46), 1–30.Google Scholar
Whiting, Susan. 2001. Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zhou, Nan, Levine, Mark, and Price, Lynn. 2010. “Overview of current energy efficiency policies in China.” Energy Policy 38 (11), 6439–452.Google Scholar