Carbon Emission Policies and their Implementation Results in China : A Review

This study evaluates policies developed to reduce carbon emissions in China, including draft laws and legislation, development plans and regulation frameworks, as well as sectorial allocations and institutional structures; probes into the existing gap and the lack of institutional arrangements, and puts forward the mechanism to reduce the gap and further improve the institutional policies. This research is mainly based on text mining and public data acquisition, including public and some unpublished documents, along with media interview data. Since 2010, the Chinese government has made great efforts to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, and achieved considerable results in these fields, but there are still some shortcomings in the policy effect. The factors restricting further reduction of carbon emissions include: the reversal of policy-driven mechanism, the lack of details and legalization of policy implementation, the failure of government control and policy deviation; in addition, poor coordination between stakeholders and policy implementation departments also limits the implementation effect of carbon emissions-related policies. The opening of the National Carbon Emission Trading Market in 2021 is expected to further effectively reduce the total carbon emissions and help solve the policy contradiction. However, the opening of the National Carbon Emission Trading Market is also a major challenge. Based on the social and market demand, corresponding supporting policies and legislation are needed to ensure the long-term and stable operation of the market