IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v23y2021i8d10.1007_s10668-020-01168-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bringing resource management back into the environmental governance agenda: eco-state restructuring in China

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Y. Lin

    (National Chengchi University)

Abstract

The primary aim of ancient Chinese environmental governance was to efficiently manage the country’s limited natural resources; this was also reflected in the context of the hydraulic society. From the 1950s to 1960s, the utilisation of Chinese natural resources, especially for food security, dominated the development of the environmental governance agenda. As China has become urbanised and industrialised since the late 1970s, its environmental governance agenda shifted from rural centrism to urban centrism in the 1980s, and from resource management to pollution control in the 1990s, and then to carbon control in the 2000s. Thus, the establishment and evolution of the environmental protection agency attracted most attention while addressing contemporary Chinese environmental governance. However, in March 2018, the Chinese government reshaped its environmental protection agency by broadening the Ministries of Natural Resources and Ecological Environment to include pollution control and resource management. Consequently, the traditional environmental governance agenda of managing natural resources is re-emerging. This study examines why and how the environmental governance agenda of resource management has evolved in China; it then applies the theory of eco-state restructuring to describe the waves of China’s environmental governance agenda. The study contributes to the theoretical work on China’s evolving environmental governance agenda and descriptive work on the re-emerging dimensions of resource management for Chinese environmental governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Y. Lin, 2021. "Bringing resource management back into the environmental governance agenda: eco-state restructuring in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 12272-12301, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1007_s10668-020-01168-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-01168-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-01168-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-020-01168-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Sustainable Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1818.
    2. John Vogler, 2007. "The International Politics of Sustainable Development," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 26, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Ying QU & Yue LIU, 2017. "Evaluating the low-carbon development of urban China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 939-953, June.
    4. Robyn Eckersley, 2020. "The Green State in Transition: Reply to Bailey, Barry and Craig," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 46-56, January.
    5. Brett Cohen, 2010. "A guidance framework for mainstreaming resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production in a developing country context," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 12(6), pages 1051-1068, December.
    6. Shuo Gao & Ping Jiang, 2020. "Detecting and understanding co-benefits generated in tackling climate change and environmental degradation in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 4589-4618, June.
    7. Frauke Urban & Giles Mohan & Sarah Cook, 2013. "China as a new shaper of international development: the environmental implications," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 257-263, April.
    8. Xuemei Bai, 2007. "Integrating Global Environmental Concerns into Urban Management: The Scale and Readiness Arguments," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 11(2), pages 15-29, April.
    9. Teng, Fei & Zhang, Xiliang, 2010. "Clean development mechanism practice in China: Current status and possibilities for future regime," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 4328-4335.
    10. Zhu Liu & Dabo Guan & Douglas Crawford-Brown & Qiang Zhang & Kebin He & Jianguo Liu, 2013. "A low-carbon road map for China," Nature, Nature, vol. 500(7461), pages 143-145, August.
    11. I-Chun Catherine Chang & Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2016. "A Green Leap Forward? Eco-State Restructuring and the Tianjin-Binhai Eco-City Model," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(6), pages 929-943, June.
    12. Jason Hickel & Giorgos Kallis, 2020. "Is Green Growth Possible?," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 469-486, June.
    13. Richard Louis Edmonds, 2011. "The Evolution of Environmental Policy in the People’s Republic of China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 13-35.
    14. Unknown, 2016. "Energy for Sustainable Development," Conference Proceedings 253270, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies (IDSAsr).
    15. Gough, Ian, 2016. "Welfare states and environmental states: a comparative analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 63153, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Thomas Princen, 2001. "Consumption and its Externalities: Where Economy Meets Ecology," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 1(3), pages 11-30, August.
    17. Dan Bailey, 2020. "Re-thinking the Fiscal and Monetary Political Economy of the Green State," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 5-17, January.
    18. Niklas Jakobsson & Raya Muttarak & Mi Ah Schoyen, 2018. "Dividing the pie in the eco-social state: Exploring the relationship between public support for environmental and welfare policies," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(2), pages 313-339, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Baoding Sun & Guixia Wang & Yunjia Liu, 2023. "Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism Benefit Analysis on Eco-Environmental Resource Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. García-García, Pablo & Buendía, Luis & Carpintero, Óscar, 2022. "Welfare regimes as enablers of just energy transitions: Revisiting and testing the hypothesis of synergy for Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Julien Salama, 2023. "Financing the post-growth state," Post-Print hal-04280023, HAL.
    3. Maria Petmesidou & Ana M. Guillén, 2022. "Europe’s green, digital and demographic transition: a social policy research perspective," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(3), pages 317-332, August.
    4. Richard Green & Yacob Mulugetta & Zhong Xiang Zhang, 2014. "Sustainable energy policy," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 33, pages 532-550, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Abdul Rehman & Magdalena Radulescu & Hengyun Ma & Vishal Dagar & Imran Hussain & Muhammad Kamran Khan, 2021. "The Impact of Globalization, Energy Use, and Trade on Ecological Footprint in Pakistan: Does Environmental Sustainability Exist?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Siegel, Karen M. & Bastos Lima, Mairon G., 2020. "When international sustainability frameworks encounter domestic politics: The sustainable development goals and agri-food governance in South America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Cahen-Fourot, Louison, 2020. "Contemporary capitalisms and their social relation to the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Villanthenkodath, Muhammed Ashiq & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar, 2021. "Does economic growth respond to electricity consumption asymmetrically in Bangladesh? The implication for environmental sustainability," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    9. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Hoang, Thi Hong Van & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Roubaud, David, 2017. "Energy consumption, financial development and economic growth in India: New evidence from a nonlinear and asymmetric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 199-212.
    10. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    11. Gatti, Donatella, 2022. "Going green and (un)equal ? Political coalitions, redistribution, and the environment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    12. Mollik, Sazib & Rashid, M.M. & Hasanuzzaman, M. & Karim, M.E. & Hosenuzzaman, M., 2016. "Prospects, progress, policies, and effects of rural electrification in Bangladesh," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 553-567.
    13. Obsatar Sinaga & Mohd Haizam Mohd Saudi & Djoko Roespinoedji & Mohd Shahril Ahmad Razimi, 2019. "The Dynamic Relationship between Natural Gas and Economic Growth: Evidence from Indonesia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(3), pages 388-394.
    14. Asongu, Simplice A. & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2021. "Inequality, finance and renewable energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(P1), pages 678-688.
    15. Shirzad, Mohammad & Kazemi Shariat Panahi, Hamed & Dashti, Behrouz B. & Rajaeifar, Mohammad Ali & Aghbashlo, Mortaza & Tabatabaei, Meisam, 2019. "A comprehensive review on electricity generation and GHG emission reduction potentials through anaerobic digestion of agricultural and livestock/slaughterhouse wastes in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 571-594.
    16. Teng, Meixuan & Burke, Paul J. & Liao, Hua, 2019. "The demand for coal among China's rural households: Estimates of price and income elasticities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 928-936.
    17. Wan-Lin Yong & Jerome Kueh & Yong Sze Wei & Jang-Haw Tiang, 2020. "Energy Consumption and Economic Growth Nexus in China: Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(2), pages 194212-1942, December.
    18. Stua, Michele, 2013. "Evidence of the clean development mechanism impact on the Chinese electric power system's low-carbon transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1309-1319.
    19. Ruqayya Ibraheem & Ismat Nasim, 2021. "Globalization, Energy Use and Environmental Degradation in Thailand," iRASD Journal of Energy and Environment, International Research Association for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 2(1), pages 01-11, June.
    20. Wenxiao Chu & Maria Vicidomini & Francesco Calise & Neven Duić & Poul Alborg Østergaard & Qiuwang Wang & Maria da Graça Carvalho, 2022. "Recent Advances in Low-Carbon and Sustainable, Efficient Technology: Strategies and Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-30, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1007_s10668-020-01168-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.