Low Carbon City in China: Practice and Governance Model Innovation

Global climate change resulted from greenhouse gas emission has drawn wide attention of international community. In order to tackle climate problem and achieve low carbon development, government; of many international cities and organizations are actively promoting the construction of low carbon city. Low carbon city development has aroused a high degree of enthusiasm and has received wide policy support from high levels in China, whilst it has blindness and disorder. This paper summarizes the national policy framework of low carbon city and practices of 20 representative cities in China. Then the author analyzes the current inadequacy in China's low carbon city development. After that the paper briefly reviews international experiences. The paper puts particular emphasis on the governance model and institutional framework innovation for low carbon city development, and concludes that on the governance subjects' structure dimension, it needs a collaboration among government, businesses, financial organizations, citizens and NGOs; on the governance policy instruments dimension, policy design should be changed from relying on administrative means to relying on market mechanisms.