资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

In this podcast, David Ledesma talks to Michal Meidan, (Director of the China Energy Programme at OIES), Philip Andrews-Speed (Senior Research Fellow, OIES & Senior Principal Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore) and Anders Hove, (Project Director for the Energy Transition project at GIZ & Research Associate, OIES) about the key takeaways from their paper : “Software versus hardware: how China’s institutional setting helps and hinders the clean energy transition”. They discuss how China’s institutional settings and governance structures both help and hinder the energy transition. Indeed, some observers assume that China’s interventionist management of the economy and dominance of state-owned monopolies will hinder the transition as they limit market forces and private enterprise. Others point to China’s strong central state and high-level commitments to climate change to suggest that China’s institutions are better suited to addressing environmental problems than those of liberal democracies. The reality is that a strong central government can guide certain outcomes, but local governments, state-owned enterprises can slow change at times. Limited market signals can also slow progress. In this discussion, the speakers set out a preliminary framework for analysing the areas where technological and institutional factors make change more likely to be lasting and transformative, versus areas in which resistance will likely remain strong.