Climate Advocacy Coalitions in Guangdong, China

This article applies a modified conceptual framework derived from Sabatier’s advocacy coalition framework (ACF) and Haas’ epistemic communities’ framework (ECF) to analyze climate advocacy coalitions in Guangzhou, China, a largely unexplored area of study. Our analysis reveals several key features of the climate policy advocacy groups working to promote policy change within the policy subsystem of a non-pluralistic regime: (1) mutual interdependence (consensus building) in the creation of an advocacy coalition system; (2) government recognition and endorsement of newly established or professionally oriented coalition organisations; (3) coalition formation in a top-down manner rather than by accumulative bottom-up demands; and (4) bottom-up motivators, such as changing societal values and the external environment, which contribute to and accelerate the reform of policy orientation and the administrative structure of coalition formation.