Introduction: climate change and environmental governance in China

This introductory chapter introduces readers to a contour of climate change challenges and governance in the People Republic of China (PRC). It then briefly reviews the literature on four key areas of environmental governance in the PRC. It focuses on these four topics because of their relevancy for this Handbook and because of space limitations. The first topic is environmental policymaking at both the national and subnational levels in the PRC. The second topic is environmental policy implementation at the national and subnational levels in the PRC. The third topic is the role of non-state actors in environmental governance in the PRC. And the fourth topic is China’s effort to promote sustainable development and the green economy since 2002. This chapter also discusses good methodological approaches in recent publications by Chinese scholars. Finally, this chapter discusses the need for the PRC to carry out effective enforcement, monitoring, and evaluation of environmental policies, and addresses regional disparities in environmental quality. © The Editors and Contributors Severally 2024. All rights reserved.