China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 61
Key Energy-Related Policies and Programs
To achieve its myriad domestic and international energy-related goals, China has established
many policies and programs at the national, subnational, and sectoral levels. Some of these are
relatively new while others are continuations of long-standing efforts. Some are just now in the
pilot stage while others started as pilots and are now larger efforts.
This section provides a brief description of 42 selected policies and programs currently in place
in China focused on energy and related emissions, building on the China Energy Group’s 30+
years of policy and program development, implementation, and analysis in China and
augmented by information provided through publicly-available documents and 18 interviews
with research staff and policymakers in China. This section also categorizes the 42 selected
policies and programs by their coverage using the following categories:
• National – broad in scope and apply to all of China
• Subnational – only active in specific locations in China
• Industry – manufacturing activities
• Buildings – commercial (including government/public) and residential buildings, covers
urban and rural buildings
• Appliances and equipment – energy-consuming components of buildings
• Transportation – all forms of transportation, except international air flights
• Power – all types of electricity consumption and production
This section further categorizes the 42 selected policies and programs by type using the
following categories, based on the typology presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change Working Group III in its Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2014) and informed by
the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2020), Gallagher and Xuan (2018), and Climate Policy
Initiative (2013):
• Regulatory/Administrative: policies or programs that establish a mandatory rule, targets,
goals, minimum performance standards, or energy use limits with penalties in case of noncompliance.
• Economic: policies or programs that include taxes (or tax credit/reduction), subsidies (or
subsidy removal), research and development support, or establish rules for new markets
(e.g. cap-and-trade; emissions trading).
• Informational: policies or programs such as labels, certificates, and data disclosure designed
to provide relevant information to inform consumption and production decisions.
• Voluntary: policies or programs that solicit voluntary actions by enterprises or other actors
separate from regulatory requirements, often undertaken to provide flexibility in
compliance methods.
• Motivational: policies or programs that provide enterprises or other actors with nonmonetary incentives to participate and achieve specific goals or targets.
Detailed descriptions of the 42 energy-related policies and programs currently in effect in China
that are covered in this Chapter are provided online at https://china.lbl.gov/china-energyoutlook.
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