China’s climate change and socio-economic development policies and measures are relatively siloed, but opportunities exist for more cross-cutting and inclusive approaches.
Inclusive and gender-transformative approaches to climate action can support the implementation of China’s national policy agendas across climate change mitigation and adaptation, economic development and rural revitalization, and women’s development. Based on confidential interviews and stakeholder workshops with researchers and practitioners in these fields in China, as well as secondary research, this chapter explores opportunities for inclusive climate action across a range of policy areas in China. It also analyses challenges in China’s national policy environment for fostering more inclusive, cross-cutting approaches to climate action.
Opportunities for inclusive approaches to climate action
Participating experts and practitioners from the fields of climate change mitigation and adaptation, rural development and women’s development strongly agreed that the synergies between these policy areas could be harnessed through cross-cutting approaches. Participants emphasized the benefits of improved gender equality to effective delivery on China’s climate change targets, as well as reducing poverty and closing rural–urban income gaps – key elements of the common prosperity policy agenda.
Such cross-cutting policy approaches would help to achieve the vision of ‘ecological civilization’, which seeks to restore China’s natural environment while ensuring continued economic development and rising living standards. In practice, ‘ecological civilization’ entails developing a state-supported low-carbon economy while addressing environmental issues – including water, soil and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss – resulting from decades of rapid economic development. Chinese leaders have also emphasized that climate change mitigation policies and measures should be implemented in a way that supports important socio-economic goals. For instance, Vice Premier Han Zheng stated in a June 2022 speech that:
Climate change mitigation
In a confidential questionnaire, participating researchers and practitioners in climate change, gender equality and rural revitalization in China assessed the national policy environment across these policy areas as ‘somewhat supportive’ of inclusive approaches to climate action. They agreed that national policies on climate change had increasingly considered economic development and equality objectives. Many suggested that national policymakers could strengthen their consideration of, and provision for, the needs of vulnerable groups, particularly in climate change mitigation policies and measures. For example, a Chinese climate change researcher stated:
China has not yet appointed a national gender and climate change focal point (NGCCFP), and the integration of gender concerns in China’s national climate change mitigation policies and measures is very limited. China’s national climate change mitigation policies, and its NDC, do not mention gender or social considerations. China’s statistical indicator system for climate change – which influences outcomes on certifications, standards and financing for climate action – does not include gender indicators.
Supporting public awareness can help to mobilize bottom-up contributions to emissions reduction. Consumer demand reduction – especially among China’s urban middle class – can contribute to climate change mitigation. Women’s understanding of climate change is particularly important, as due to the existing gender division of labour, women make most household purchasing decisions, and are responsible for much demand and end use of energy resources in food production, care and education.
Low-carbon economic development and a just transition
China is pursuing a high-innovation, low-carbon approach to economic development. The Chinese government has detailed energy efficiency and industrial upgrading goals and is investing in low-carbon technology development, including strategic industries such as new energy vehicles. More broadly, China is seeking to rebalance its economy – away from its previous export-oriented, labour-intensive manufacturing approach – by increasing the share of high-value services and stimulating domestic consumption. This transition offers a suite of new employment opportunities in ‘green jobs’.
However, the World Bank estimates that 10–15 per cent of China’s workforce is employed in industries with a high-carbon intensity – including manufacturing, energy, transport and mining. The energy transition is projected to cause the loss of 1.6 million to 1.9 million jobs in these sectors. While projections indicate that more jobs will be created than lost in China due to the energy transition, newly created ‘green jobs’ generally require high-level human capital (education and skills). They will be predominantly created in China’s coastal provinces, while job losses will be concentrated in China’s inland northern and western provinces, which are more reliant on coal production and heavy industries. For instance, investment in technically feasible low-carbon measures in Chinese cities – such as retrofitting buildings and improving public transportation – could create an estimated 15.2 million jobs by 2030 and lower urban greenhouse gas emissions by 48 per cent in the same period.
Consequently, just transition measures will be important to avoid exacerbating economic inequality between China’s regions – a key element of President Xi’s common prosperity policy agenda. The concept of a just transition is gaining some traction among policymakers, NGOs and research institutions in China, and the government has introduced subsidies, retraining opportunities and job placements for newly unemployed coal and steel workers.
Promoting the employment of underrepresented groups, including women, in new ‘green jobs’ can ensure high-quality human capital in key industries while reducing economic inequalities.
According to World Bank modelling of an energy transition scenario aligned with China’s 2030 and 2060 goals, 77 per cent of jobs lost would be among lower skilled workers, and 64 per cent would be among men. However, the wider impacts on communities that depend on carbon-intensive industries should not be overlooked. Ancillary enterprises that rely on coal workers for income (such as the service industry) – which are often informal and often have a higher proportion of female employees – should be included in transition-related social protection schemes so as to not be left behind. Additionally, energy prices in China are expected to rise in the short-term because of the energy transition, which will disproportionately affect low-income households, many of which are female-headed. Rural and low-income households – which are more likely to use coal – may need additional support for access to reliable, sustainable and affordable energy.
Promoting the employment of underrepresented groups, including women, in new ‘green jobs’ can ensure high-quality human capital in key industries while reducing economic inequalities. China’s disparities in educational quality between urban and rural areas are especially severe for children of urban migrants living in rural areas or in urban areas without a hukou – particularly for girls in these groups. These disparities influence their labour force participation and social mobility – and ability to access highly skilled ‘green jobs’. The energy transition is a chance to open up opportunities for women – including low-income and migrant women – in male-dominated sectors such as research and development, technology and renewable energy. This can be achieved through gender-transformative interventions such as those explored in Box 5.
Climate change adaptation
Some of China’s major climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction policies and measures consider gender and other social factors. China’s National Strategy for Climate Adaptation mentions vulnerable groups in the context of health – including the need to identify which population groups are most vulnerable to climate change-related health risks, and monitoring climate-sensitive disease conditions in central China. It also outlines plans to improve climate risk protection in cities for vulnerable groups, including children, low-income groups, elderly people, pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions. China’s disaster risk reduction policies and measures have integrated some gender-responsive and inclusive provisions, such as including sanitary products in relief supplies and guaranteeing access to medical services for pregnant and lactating women, elderly people, infants and people with disabilities. Its statistical monitoring system includes indicators for women, the elderly, children, people with disabilities and economically marginalized groups, to make transitional assistance after disasters inclusive.
The Chinese government is developing increasingly comprehensive responses to climate change risks, and measures to build resilience. The government’s growing emphasis on adaptation provides opportunities for creative community-level adaptation interventions, including participatory and holistic approaches that combine development and climate change adaptation objectives to support the resilience of climate vulnerable communities. However, China’s adaptation strategy does not specify which social groups are classified as ‘vulnerable populations’ – reflecting the difficulty of generalizing at a national level. Existing government data on climate change vulnerability is not easily accessible. Participants suggested that further research – especially cross-cutting qualitative research – on the differential vulnerability of social groups in China would be important for informing effective adaptation policy and programming interventions.
Rural revitalization
Poverty reduction is a long-standing government priority in China. The 2013 Targeted Poverty Alleviation strategy focused on meeting the needs of specific poor households and was successful in reaching the national target of eliminating extreme poverty by 2020. Social protection provisions have been significantly expanded, although informal sector workers – disproportionately comprised of women in both rural and urban areas – and urban migrant workers continue to be excluded from most forms of government support. This affects their ability to cope with and recover from extreme weather events and economic shocks related to climate change. The government has broadened its approach to rural development, replacing the Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development with the National Administration for Rural Revitalization in early 2021. China’s current rural revitalization strategy aims to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability, as well as access to public services and non-agricultural employment opportunities in rural areas. This also links with the common prosperity policy agenda promoted by President Xi since early 2021, which aims to address income inequality (and expand China’s middle class), as well as inequalities between rural and urban areas, and among China’s diverse regions.
Participants suggested that further opportunities exist to integrate climate change adaptation into rural revitalization measures, especially at the provincial level. A practitioner from a grassroots environmental NGO shared:
Several participants suggested that these cross-cutting approaches can be achieved by mainstreaming climate change and environmental considerations into rural revitalization and women’s development plans, programmes and assessment objectives. For example, this could entail facilitating poor women farmers’ access to financial services and credit, enabling them the option to invest in climate change adaptation measures.
Women’s development
Gender equality is enshrined in China’s constitution and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women. However, this does not guarantee that China’s laws and policies produce gender-equal effects. For example, although gender-based discrimination in hiring is illegal in China, gender-based hiring biases have increased since the relaxation of the one-child policy, and job postings explicitly specifying a preference or requirement for male applicants have become more common.
China’s National Programme for Women’s Development (2021–30) takes a relatively holistic approach to environmental and social challenges. It includes environmental targets such as reducing the impact of environmental pollution on women’s health, improving the gender sensitivity of disaster response measures, and promoting ‘women’s important role in the construction of ecological civilisation’. The plan highlights increasing women’s participation in science and technology education and industries; participation in rural revitalization – including land rights protection – and in local-level decision-making as key pathways for women’s contributions to solving environmental problems. It also calls for the strengthening of gender equality assessments across all laws and policies.
Challenges for inclusive approaches to climate action
Fragmented policy implementation
China’s political system is hierarchical but fragmented, with five levels of government – national, provincial, prefecture, county and township. At every level, the CPC and Chinese government are closely tied. The party selects the heads of government offices and state-owned enterprises, and senior leaders hold positions in both the CPC and government. China’s central government leads policymaking and sets the direction of travel, for example, through national goals and statements by political leaders. Subnational governments implement central government policies, but also generate policies and regulations based on national objectives.
Respondents reported that collaborations among NGOs, research institutes and local government in policy implementation were highly effective and could be expanded further – especially at a municipal level – to advance inclusive approaches to climate action.
This hierarchical structure enables more flexible and contextual policy implementation – crucial in a country as large and diverse as China – but it also creates challenges with local compliance. Policy implementation is monitored through a performance evaluation system for officials – the ‘target responsibility system’ – that includes a range of sometimes conflicting factors such as GDP growth, social stability and emissions reduction. Local officials can implement policies according to their interests with relatively limited oversight from central officials – although the central government has been increasing its oversight, including through crackdowns on corruption. This bureaucratic system can pose challenges to effective national policy implementation.
Due to these challenges, participants assessed their municipal and provincial policy environments as less supportive of inclusive approaches to climate action than the national policy environment. Several participants suggested that despite national policy support for gender and inclusion in climate action, enforcement of these laws and policies was limited. An expert on gender equality and climate change assessed that at a municipal level:
However, increasing awareness of the benefits of these approaches – through sharing of research and case studies in diverse Chinese contexts with subnational officials – could help to address this.
Participants – particularly those based in rural areas – also suggested that holistic approaches to climate change and socio-economic development issues are sometimes implemented at a local level without their climate change components being made explicit. Approximately three-quarters of participants rated municipal- and provincial-level policy environments as ‘highly supportive’ or ‘supportive’ of improving the resilience of vulnerable communities, as well as facilitating collaboration between environmental and social sectors in research and practice. Respondents reported that collaborations among NGOs, research institutes and local government in policy implementation were highly effective and could be expanded further – especially at a municipal level – to advance inclusive approaches to climate action. Environmental NGOs in rural areas were particularly interested in deepening their collaboration with local government. Box 3 explores the role of Chinese and international NGOs in governance in China.
