Kina - China's climate change policy: through the prism of energy policy

The project proposal to be developed (should funding be obtained) concerns China's energy and climate policy. China is a key country in climate change affairs, and improved knowledge of China's domestic energy and climate policy is of great importance for global environmental politics. One main purpose of the project to be developed is to analyse China's climate policy through the prism of energy policy. Such a project will increase our understanding of a crucial determinant for China's climate policy. Po tential key questions to be studied are: 1. To what extent are climate considerations reflected in China's energy policy? 2. What are the perceptions and priorities of key decision-makers in China's energy/climate policy with regard to future energy optio ns? To what extent is the climate change debate reflected in the discussion about future energy alternatives? 3. Changes in decision-making in China: case through energy and climate policy. There are two main reasons for selecting climate change as the case. First, it is assumed that studying climate change through energy will be an interesting illustration of changes in China's decision-making process. One reason for this is that climate change is a fairly new issue area that has developed in tandem wi th China's opening up. Thus, climate change would be a good case for studying changes in decision-making. Second, China is one of the most important players in the climate change debate and regime. China's domestic climate policy making will have a global impact. Interviews will be carried out to supplement the official information with additional sources in order to obtain a broader picture of the process. Moreover, suggested theories to be applied in the proposed project are specific theories develope d for the study of Chinese decision-making in general as well as discourse analysis to study Chinese perceptions of energy and climate issues.