Low Carbon Innovation in China - Prospects, Politics and Practice

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China's efforts to low-carbon transition are a key issue for the whole world in the coming decades. China's spectacular economic growth over 30 years has both propelled it to the core of the global economy and geopolitics while also generating massive and growing greenhouse gas emissions; China is now the top global emitter in absolute terms. There are now many programmes of low-carbon innovation in China. Beyond energy generation, system change in various sectors, such as agriculture and transport, is vital. These efforts also interact closely with a top policy priority of the Chinese government to upgrade innovation capacities and economic competitiveness while keeping state control. A century ago, the innovation and related socio-political change occurring in the rising US superpower came to shape societies across the world. Today, whether or not China's low-carbon transition succeeds, and the qualitative nature of the resulting society, will profoundly affect the rest of the world, including the UK.There is a growing literature on low-carbon innovation in China, especially from thinktanks, global institutions and INGOs, but a lack of in-depth academic research. Most of these reports focus on technology development. They also overlook the significant differences in socio-political contexts between China and rich Western countries. They thus tend to restate conventional policy recommendations that remain ignored or are proving impossible to implement. Low carbon transition fails to emerge even as socioeconomic change continues at spectacular pace. Such obstacles are to be expected, however, when understanding transitions from a broader systems perspective that acknowledges their 'socio-technical' nature. Social, institutional, cultural and political factors linked to changing technologies and practices are crucial in both explaining and eliciting low-carbon transition. Examining the actual practices of users who are expected by policy or corporate strategy to shift to low-carbon technologies can provide a different, more informative picture about what, how and why particular low-carbon innovations are succeeding or failing. This project aims to fill these gaps and insert a social science, rather than economic, paradigm into conceiving what a low-carbon future could be like. It will explore the prospects, politics and practice of low-carbon innovation in China in three overlapping, but importantly different, domains: solar energy, urban mobility and agri-food. To make research practicable, we focus on specific case studies, chosen to provide comparative insights regarding differing models of innovation in each domain: solar energy (PV vs. thermal), urban mobility (electric vehicles vs. e-bikes) and agriculture (GM vs. agro-ecological cultivation of maize). In each case we thus compare the globally dominant model of high-technology, IP-intensive innovation favoured by current Chinese 'indigenous innovation' policy and an alternative model that is successfully mobilizing other indigenous innovation resources and capabilities, but without such government support. The project will examine 4 research questions:1. Are low-carbon transitions emerging in the case study areas and why? 2. With what effects regarding broader systemic decarbonisation?3. What qualitative socio-political changes are emerging in China with implications for these socio-technical systems and social practices? 4. What lessons does China's state capitalist approach to low-carbon innovation offer UK industrial policy for a) low-carbon transition & b) globally competitive low-carbon industries?The expected outcomes are a better understanding of: the strengths/weaknesses of different low-carbon policies and strategies; the qualitative nature of socio-political change related to current Chinese low-carbon innovation; and the possible effects of the emergence of the Chinese low-carbon innovation on UK society.