Enabling China’s Low-Carbon Transition: The 12th Five-Year Plan and the Future Climate Regime

In 2009, the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen solidified China’s place as a pivotal player in climate-change negotiations. But with growing recognition of China’s new status came divergent views of its motivations. For some, China was trying to capture the reputational benefits from appearing on a global stage with other major powers, while refusing to cede ground on controversial elements of a future climate regime (Broder and Kanter, 2009; Hood, 2009; Levi, 2009). This chapter argues that playing global politics was not the only motivation for China to engage in climate negotiations. Rather, we maintain that China became more actively engaged in international climate politics for reasons related to domestic energy policies.