ABSTRACT
The European Union and its member states have for years tried to influence and shape the international climate change agenda. Taking the European Union and its policies on emissions trading, the chapter follows the emission trading system (ETS) policy process from agenda-setting to policy adoption in China. This chapter considers a policy analysis of ETS and its main alternative, a carbon tax, as policies combating climate change and fulfilling criteria of Chinese national interests. The chapter follows the process towards policy adoption and revisits the active and passive initiatives by representatives of the European Union to engage with China and to influence ETS introduction. It also follows the causal mechanism from agenda-setting, to turf acquisition, and finally turf consolidation. The research is based upon secondary and primary data from 60 interviews carried out in the EU and China from 2012–2015. The chapter concludes with a comparison with other countries that were actively supporting the introduction of ETS in China.
