The Chinese perspective on the green transition: strategies and outcomes

This article examines China’s green transition from a political economy perspective, emphasizing the interaction between the developmental state, Five-Year Plans, and multilevel governance arrangements. It argues that China’s capacity to advance decarbonization and productive restructuring is rooted in the combination of long-term strategic planning, decentralized implementation, and policy instruments such as green finance, carbon markets, and pilot zones. By integrating top-down coordination with bottom-up experimentation, this framework has supported the expansion of renewable energy, technological upgrading, and improvements in green complexity indicators. At the same time, the persistence of high emission levels and carbon-intensive sectors highlights the non-linear and contradictory nature of the transition process. The Chinese experience thus provides relevant, albeit not directly replicable, insights for the design of sustainable development strategies in Global South economies.