ABSTRACT
A capable environmental industry is needed to meet the demand for pollution mitigation, especially for China as the world’s largest emitter of almost all major pollutants. This chapter examines how China’s sulfur dioxide (SO2) mitigation path under goal-centered governance affected technological market-entry barriers and the development of China’s SO2 scrubber industry. Furthermore, the market for SO2 scrubber technology is analyzed from the perspectives of foreign licensors and Chinese licensees. China’s large domestic market and the maturity of SO2 scrubber technologies greatly facilitated the technology licensing strategies of both licensors and licensees. Goal-centered governance resulted in low technological market-entry barriers for domestic firms to enter and gradually grow. This new domestic industry provided the necessary supply capacity to meet the demand for SO2 scrubbers and fierce competition rapidly brought down the SO2 mitigation costs. With both economic and environmental goals, goal-centered governance led to their better maximization of synergies and minimization of conflicts with centralized goal setting and decentralized goal attainment.
