China's National Role In Global Climate Governance

Climate change is a global long-term problem that needs to be addressed with joint efforts between countries.With the increasing severity of climate change,most countries are aware of the need to deal with climate change.The accumulated scientific evidences have shown that anthropogenic activities,especially the use of fossil fuels,are the main causes of global warming in recent years.As a non-traditional security issue,climate change has posed a serious threat to food production and water resources in many countries.In face of the threats of climate change to the sustainable development of human society,the notion of global climate governance has become eminent in recent years.The international community has gradually formed a multilateral regime on the international cooperation of climate change,which was organized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.Under the current regime,many international documents and agreements have been approved to enhance global cooperation on combating climate change,among which the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Accord have been the milestones.As the largest developing country and one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters,China is a significant stakeholder in the global climate governance regime.In fact,China was one of the early participants in the climate negotiations organized by UN in preparation for the forming of a global governance regime on climate change,and China's national role has shifted from a passive participator to a torch bearer along with its participation in the global climate governance regime.Based on this,this dissertation reviews the historical process of China's participation in global climate governance from the perspective of national role and discusses different roles China played in the process.This dissertation also probe into the drivers behind China's changing national roles in participating global climate governance,which are the development of domestic climate policies and enhanced governance capabilities.Besides,the dissertation also singles out China in Copenhagen Summit as a case study to look into the dilemma of national role conflicts in this period.The first chapter of the dissertation introduces the concepts of national role of different scholars and illuminate the analytic logic behind the role theory.The second chapter focuses on the historical evolution of the global climate governance regime By reviewing the milestone documents of UNFCCC,Kyoto Protocol and Paris Accord,this chapter overviews the process from climate change emerging as a political agenda to the establishment of a global climate change regime.The third chapter explores the changing national roles in China's participation in global climate governance.Through categorizing China's participation in global climate governance into four stages divided by the effective date of the milestone agreements of UNFCCC,Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement,this chapter summarizes China's national role in each period as passive participator,prudent participator,proactive promoter and torch bearer.The fourth chapter further discusses the driving causes behind China's changing national role and explains such changes from perspectives of the development of climate policy and capability of climate governance.The last chapter is a case study of the national role conflicts in China's participation in Copenhagen conference,which attributes the roots of national role conflicts to the divergence of national role conception and national role expectancy.