ABSTRACT
This book has so far analysed the actors in China's climate-related policy and their interactions in the policy development and implementation processes, especially their struggles in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Scheme (ECERS) during the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans (2006–2015). This chapter follows up policy updates during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020). It investigates what policy weaknesses raised in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are addressed by these updates, and what are not. The most significant update occurred in the government actor where the Ministry of Environmental Protection was renamed the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and took over the management of the Department of Climate Change from the National Development and Reform Commission. The implementation of the national carbon trading scheme and the utilisation of Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) as an offsetting mechanism are also significant. For issues that are not addressed, this chapter discusses a range of implications for laid-off worker welfare, climate change expertise building, further promotion of renewable energy, encouragement for private investment in renewable energy, engaging with civil society, CCER methodologies, low-carbon finance, restraining provincial government's administrative power in renewable energy governance, and Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) innovations.
