This contribution looks at the Three Gorges dam project, and specifically at the resettlement programme, focusing on two major aspects. It examines the resettlement programme in relation to the environmental capacity in the reservoir area; and it assesses the existence of a risk consciousness and a reconstruction strategy, seen in terms of the 'impoverishment risks and reconstruction' (IRR) model. The author argues that issues related to the environment and natural resources are highly significant and have led to changes in the resettlement programme, including a change in policy towards moving rural people out of the reservoir area, as well as the issuing of new resettlement regulations. The IRR model is a useful tool to identify risks and can serve as a guide to the reconstruction of livelihoods for the resettled people. The limitations of using the model in the Three Gorges project concern specific Chinese environmental, social, economic and political conditions that influence efficient resettlement implementation. The Chinese authorities' emphasis in resettlement has been on rebuilding relocatees' livelihoods: it focuses less -if at all -on the social aspects and the social trauma of broken networks. The IRR model could therefore be useful in the context of focusing more on the social costs of resettlement.
China launched its national emissions trading scheme (ETS) in late 2017. This article examines the key drivers behind China's 2011 decision to opt for ETS as a GHG mitigating policy tool and what lay behind the choice of the system's design features. Given the existence of the frontrunner EU ETS and that market mechanisms have spread across the world in recent years, we analyze the role played by policy diffusion in the decision to launch an ETS and in the subsequent design process, seen in relation to domestic drivers. The article investigates policy developments culminating in the 2011 carbon market announcement, and the reasons these design elements were chosen for the pilot schemes and the national market in the period 2011-2017. The article contributes to our understanding of policy diffusion at different stages of policy development in China, by revealing which diffusion mechanism is more prevalent at different stages. We find first that overall domestic conditions and drivers had the most consistent impact on policy decisions to establish a carbon market and on the selected sectors. However, a second key finding is that the role of policy diffusion varied over time, with such diffusion, in the form of ideational impact, playing the most important role early on, providing a powerful inducement for China to go for a carbon market. Third, sophisticated learning from international projects took place in the pilots, allowing China to adapt policies and design features to match local conditions.
Asia–Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, China, Clean Development Mechanism, Climate change, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
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