ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the rapid developments and evolutions in China's government institutions and domestic climate policy, starting with a brief overview of historic developments and a presentation of the main policy drivers. It does so through the lens of basic national policies, communications and national government policy documents in key sectors like energy and economic development. As awareness of the complexities of climate risks has grown among China's policy makers, approaches to it have shifted from treating it as an issue area to development of mitigation and adaptation-specific policies to an approach designed to unify other policies, programmes and responses. Since 2007 climate change has moved up the agenda of the Chinese leadership's policy priorities. In recent years there has been an increasing recognition by China's leadership that the country's rapid economic growth has brought about serious environmental degradation and increasing emissions of hazardous pollutants.
