ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the metrics and directives for setting out a global agenda established, the state, is behoved to communicate the ideal of sustainable development to different stakeholders such as citizens and businesses. State approaches to regulating the conduct of businesses, civil society and citizens have been the subject of considerable debate within the academic literature. The chapter examines research methodology and the steps taken to implement structural equation modelling to discourses of sustainable development and transitioning towards a social and energy infrastructure based upon renewable energy and environmental norms in both China and Japan. It reviews the literature on the sociological theory of diffusion and its relationship with the climate change dilemma. The chapter shows that the norm of environmentalism espoused by the UN as per the Sustainable Development Goals must be transmuted to fit within the social and politico-economic confines of a national polity for each nation to respond effectively to new requirements to combat climate change.
