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This book examines sustainable energy development in China, a non-liberal state, as a counterexample to conventional wisdom that effective policy outcomes are premised on the basis of decentralized governance. The use of sustainable energies as part of the solution for stabilising global warming has been promoted in industrialised countries for the past three decades. In the last ten years, China has expanded its renewable energy capacity with unprecedented speed and breadth. This phenomenon seems to contradict the principle of orthodox environmental governance, in which stakeholder participation is deemed a necessary condition for effective policy outcomes. Based upon policy documents, news report and interviews with 32 policy makers, business leaders, and NGO practitioners in selected subnational governments, this book examines the politics of sustainable energy in China. It engages debates over the relationships among democratic prioritisation, environmental protection, and economic empowerment, arguing that China's quasi-corporatist model in the sustainable energy field challenges Western scholars' dominant assumptions about ecopolitics

Ecological modernisation has evolved and shifted from a social theory to a political agenda that endeavours to tackle the environmental consequences of industrialisation. Drawing on primary information collected from interviews with provincial policy-makers, industrial managers and representatives of professional associations, the article analyses renewable energy deployment in two coastal provinces of China. Institutional configurations are also examined in order to understand whether coherent synergies between environmental and economic goals can be achieved. The article argues that the inteventionist, state-centric measures in the regional renewable energy sector represent a novel form of ecological modernisation distinguishable from the models that originated in Europe. (China/GIGA)

"This book studies the extent to which nuclear safety issues have contributed towards the stagnation of nuclear power development around the world, and accounts for differences in safety regulations in different countries. In order to understand why nuclear development has not met widespread expectations, this book focuses on six key countries with active nuclear power programmes: USA, China, France, South Korea, UK and Russia. The authors integrate cultural theory and theory of regulation, and examine the links between pressures of cultural bias on regulatory outcomes and political pressures which have led to increased safety requirements and subsequent economic costs. They discover that although nuclear safety is an important upward driver of costs in the nuclear power industry, this is influenced by the inherent need to control potentially dangerous reactions rather than stricter nuclear safety standards. The findings reveal that differences in the strictness of nuclear safety regulations between different countries can be understood by understanding differences in cultural contexts and changes in cultural context over time. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers working on energy policy and regulation, environmental politics and policy, and environment and sustainability more generally"--