China in Twenty-Five Years of Global Environmental Politics: The Case of Climate Diplomacy

Abstract China’s role in global environmental politics (GEP) has evolved dramatically over the past twenty-five years to occupy an increasingly paradoxical place in global climate politics. It has become both the world’s largest builder of renewable energy and its largest consumer of coal, as well as a climate leader of the South that rejects mandatory climate finance or technology obligations while providing support through South–South cooperation. This dual role presents a contradiction at the heart of global climate governance, leading to ambiguity surrounding China’s likely future climate leadership. We demonstrate how many of China’s key negotiating positions can be explained as a two-level game balancing domestic and international priorities. We focus on technology transfer and climate finance and on developments since Paris and outside of the UNFCCC context. Our findings contribute to an understanding of new dynamics in GEP, including changing power and leadership dynamics, and the increasingly central role of domestic industrial policy.