From Bali To Paris: An Analysis Of China 's Climate Policy From The Perspective Of Responsibility

This thesis aims at developing and deepening the understanding of Chinese climate governance by explaining the paradox of China’s aggressive internal climate activities and conservative international position from 2007 to 2015 from its notion of responsibility and self-positioning as a “responsible great developing power”. The thesis makes a detailed examination of China’s positions in international negotiations from Bali Climate Conference in 2007 to Paris Climate Conference in 2015, discerns and elaborates the consistencies of its basic arguments and principles, and finds its refusal to make a binding commitment on carbon emission being the most conservative part of its international position. The thesis also traces China’s domestic climate governance mainly through its 11 th and 12 th Five-year national plans, and finds the climate change issue has been placed at the top of its national agendas, and incorporated into its national development. The thesis clarifies China’s self-position as a “responsible developing great power”, and explains the paradox from two angles: China’s rational of its ambitious domestic climate governance lies in its unique “self-governance as global governance”mentality, and its rational of its conservative international position lies in its insistence of justice embedded in “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities”principle, and the tension inside its dual-identity of being a “developing country”and “responsible great power”further explains the paradox.