Low Carbon Innovation in China - Prospects, Politics and Practice

中国向低碳转型的努力是未来几十年全世界的一个关键问题。30多年来，中国惊人的经济增长既使其成为全球经济和地缘政治的核心，同时也产生了大量不断增长的温室气体排放；从绝对值来看，中国现在是全球最大的碳排放国。中国现在有很多低碳创新项目。除了能源生产，农业和交通等各个部门的系统变革也至关重要。这些努力也与中国政府在保持国家控制的同时提高创新能力和经济竞争力的最高政策重点密切相关。一个世纪前，美国这个崛起的超级大国所带来的创新和相关的社会政治变革，影响了世界各地的社会。今天，中国的低碳转型是否成功，以及由此产生的社会的质量性质，将深刻影响包括英国在内的世界其他国家。关于中国低碳创新的文献越来越多，尤其是来自智库、国际机构和非政府组织的文献，但缺乏深入的学术研究。这些报告大多侧重于技术发展。他们也忽视了中国和富裕的西方国家在社会政治背景上的显著差异。因此，他们倾向于重申仍然被忽视或被证明不可能执行的传统政策建议。即使社会经济继续以惊人的速度变化，低碳转型也未能出现。然而，当从承认其“社会技术”性质的更广泛的系统角度理解转型时，这些障碍是可以预料到的。与不断变化的技术和实践相关的社会、制度、文化和政治因素在解释和促成低碳转型方面至关重要。对政策或公司战略期望用户转向低碳技术的实际做法进行检查，可以提供一幅不同的、更翔实的画面，说明特定的低碳创新是什么、如何以及为什么成功或失败的。该项目旨在填补这些空白，并在设想低碳未来的过程中引入社会科学的范式，而不是经济的范式。它将从太阳能、城市交通和农业食品这三个重叠但又重要不同的领域探讨中国低碳创新的前景、政策和实践。为了使研究切实可行，我们将重点放在具体的案例研究上，为每个领域的不同创新模式提供比较见解：太阳能（光伏vs热能），城市交通（电动汽车vs电动自行车）和农业（转基因vs农业生态种植玉米）。因此，在每种情况下，我们都比较了当前中国“自主创新”政策所支持的全球主导的高技术、知识产权密集型创新模式，以及成功调动其他自主创新资源和能力的替代模式，但没有这种政府支持。该项目将研究4个研究问题：1。低碳转型是否出现在案例研究领域？为什么？2. 对更广泛的系统性脱碳有什么影响？中国正在出现哪些质的社会政治变化，对这些社会技术系统和社会实践有何影响？4. 在a)低碳转型和b)具有全球竞争力的低碳产业方面，中国的国家资本主义低碳创新方式对英国的产业政策有什么启示？预期的结果是更好地理解：不同低碳政策和战略的优势/劣势；与当前中国低碳创新相关的社会政治变革的质性；以及中国低碳创新的出现对英国社会可能产生的影响。

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.