IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v7y2017i1d10.1007_s13412-017-0422-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China’s Paris pledge on climate change: inadequate and irresponsible

Author

Listed:
  • Paul G. Harris

    (Education University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

This essay critically assesses China’s pledge—its “intended nationally determined contributions”—toward achieving objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. It addresses some potential misconceptions about China’s pledge, including their inadequacy relative to the scale of pollution causing climate change and the dangers posed by its impacts. China’s pledge is little more than business as usual. Significant ethical obligations arise from China’s role as the largest national source of greenhouse gas pollution and home to hundreds of millions of affluent consumers. The Paris Agreement disregards such obligations. The inadequacy and irresponsibility of China’s Paris pledge exposes some fundamental flaws in the international climate change negotiations and agreements, demonstrating that science and environmental studies cannot be disconnected from ethics and justice.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul G. Harris, 2017. "China’s Paris pledge on climate change: inadequate and irresponsible," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 7(1), pages 102-107, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:7:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s13412-017-0422-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-017-0422-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-017-0422-0
    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/s13412-017-0422-0?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. Miranda A. Schreurs, 2016. "The Paris Climate Agreement and the Three Largest Emitters: China, the United States, and the European Union," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 219-223.
    2. ZhongXiang Zhang, 2017. "Are China's climate commitments in a post‐Paris agreement sufficiently ambitious?," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), March.
    3. Radoslav S. Dimitrov, 2016. "The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Behind Closed Doors," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 16(3), pages 1-11, August.
    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. Jilong Yang, 2022. "Understanding China’s changing engagement in global climate governance: a struggle for identity," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 357-376, December.

    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. Molina, Chai & Akcay, Erol & Dieckmann, Ulf & Levin, Simon & Rovenskaya, Elena A., 2018. "Combating climate change with matching-commitment agreements," SocArXiv 7yc3g, Center for Open Science.
    2. Jilong Yang, 2022. "Understanding China’s changing engagement in global climate governance: a struggle for identity," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 357-376, December.
    3. ZhongXiang Zhang, 2016. "The implementation of the Paris Agreement in the international and China?s context," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(3), pages 63-69.
    4. Bai-Chen Xie & Jie Gao & Shuang Zhang & ZhongXiang Zhang, 2017. "What Factors Affect the Competiveness of Power Generation Sector in China? An Analysis Based on Game Cross-efficiency," Working Papers 2017.12, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    5. Jon Hovi & Tora Skodvin, 2016. "Editorial to the Issue on Climate Governance and the Paris Agreement," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 111-114.
    6. Nikas, A. & Gambhir, A. & Trutnevyte, E. & Koasidis, K. & Lund, H. & Thellufsen, J.Z. & Mayer, D. & Zachmann, G. & Miguel, L.J. & Ferreras-Alonso, N. & Sognnaes, I. & Peters, G.P. & Colombo, E. & Howe, 2021. "Perspective of comprehensive and comprehensible multi-model energy and climate science in Europe," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(PA).
    7. Mario A. Fernandez & Adam J. Daigneault, 2018. "Money Does Grow On Trees: Impacts Of The Paris Agreement On The New Zealand Economy," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(03), pages 1-23, August.
    8. Zhu, Sipeng & Ma, Zetai & Zhang, Kun & Deng, Kangyao, 2020. "Energy and exergy analysis of the combined cycle power plant recovering waste heat from the marine two-stroke engine under design and off-design conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    9. Zhu, Sipeng & Gu, Yuncheng & Yuan, Hao & Ma, Zetai & Deng, Kangyao, 2020. "Thermodynamic analysis of the turbocharged marine two-stroke engine cycle with different scavenging air control technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    10. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Mo, Fei & Wang, Derek D., 2022. "Sustainable development of countries all over the world and the impact of renewable energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 320-331.
    11. Manuela G. Hartwig & Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki, 2019. "Identifying the ‘Fukushima Effect’ in Germany through policy actors’ responses: evidence from the G-GEPON 2 survey," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 2081-2101, July.
    12. Sigit Perdana and Rod Tyers, 2020. "Global Climate Change Mitigation: Strategic Incentives," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 183-206.
    13. Edina Molnár & Asif Mahmood & Naveed Ahmad & Amir Ikram & Shah Ali Murtaza, 2021. "The Interplay between Corporate Social Responsibility at Employee Level, Ethical Leadership, Quality of Work Life and Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Case of Healthcare Organizations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-16, April.
    14. Stefania Betancur & Naghelli Ortega-Avila & Erick César López-Vidaña, 2023. "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis for the Strengthening of Solar Thermal Energy in Colombia," Resources, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-21, December.
    15. Liang Nie & ZhongXiang Zhang, 2021. "Is high-speed rail green? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Working Papers 2021.23, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    16. Claire Dupont & Brendan Moore, 2019. "Brexit and the EU in Global Climate Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 51-61.
    17. ZhongXiang Zhang, 2020. "Regional Pilots and Carbon Pricing," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 18(01), pages 09-12, April.
    18. Nisbett, Nicole & Spaiser, Viktoria, 2022. "The Moral Power of Youth Climate Activists - Transforming International Climate Politics?," SocArXiv 5zsra, Center for Open Science.
    19. Haleh Moghaddasi & Charles Culp & Jorge Vanegas & Mehrdad Ehsani, 2021. "Net Zero Energy Buildings: Variations, Clarifications, and Requirements in Response to the Paris Agreement," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-21, June.
    20. Rosaria E.C. Amaral & Joel Brito & Matt Buckman & Elicia Drake & Esther Ilatova & Paige Rice & Carlos Sabbagh & Sergei Voronkin & Yewande S. Abraham, 2020. "Waste Management and Operational Energy for Sustainable Buildings: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-21, July.

    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:jenvss:v:7:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s13412-017-0422-0. 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.