Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies

A major challenge for many countries is the implementation of environmental regulations developed to reduce or eliminate air, water, and other pollutants. Recent efforts to ensure value for money in environmental protection, examine how to improve regulatory design, compliance promoting, and regulatory enforcement to deter and prevent regulatory violation. Work in accountability mechanisms such as performance audits have helped identify regulatory implementation issues. Opportunity exits to supplement traditional compliance promotion with new environmental data sources, including from citizen science.

In 2012, the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP18) of the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter referred to as the Convention) in Doha concluded a package of results which included the second commitment period of the "Kyoto Protocol", ending the Bali Roadmap negotiating mandate (hereinafter referred to as the Bali mandate) after five years, and officially opening the intensive negotiations of Durban Platform. Compared to the "dual-track" negotiation under Bali mandate, Durban Platform mandate is on "one-track". But it does not mean that some parties' concerns and positions about "dual-track" have been adjusted. They are seeking a way to realize their needs in Durban Platform. Therefore, "one-track" negotiation on Durban Platform does not simplify problems, but presents problems intensively. At the beginning of Durban Platform mandate, whether to mandate the Durban Platform negotiations was controversial among developing countries, while after consultations, Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the emerging developing economies divided on main concerns, such as mitigation targets, legal forms, sources of finance mechanism, etc. In fact, AOSIS's position gradually converged with the European Union (EU). And EU and AOSIS became the most aggressive powers to promote the Durban Platform negotiations. The traditional North–South divergence is facing adjustment, and new powers are restructuring negotiations. The huge disparity of interest among parties hinders progress in the Durban Platform negotiations. Parties will continue to debate and seek consensus on the interpretation of the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", emission reduction models and targets, sources of finance mechanism, the legal form of the future agreement, etc. With the social and economic development, China is receiving growing attention in the international climate governance processes. China's status as a developing country is being questioned by some developed and developing countries. Rapid increase of China's foreign investment and aid attracts worldwide attention, which stimulates the voices and expectations for China to shift its role as a developing country to shoulder more international obligations. However, China should be clearly aware of the fact that China's power of discourse is still very limited and far from being a leader in the world in various fields, including the international climate governance processes. China's participation in global climate governance, no matter its role being passively changed by others or a voluntary shift, still needs to keep a low profile, strengthen its economy, balance rights and obligations, and commit according to capabilities.

In the field of Climate Change China has been an increasingly important member of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process and since the mid-2000s, a key target of European engagement policies in the broader framework of the "EU–China strategic partnership". But how do Chinese decision-makers perceive these efforts? The way or "frame" they use to look at climate change also determines their mutual perceptions of each other's efforts on climate change. In order to better understand and evaluate how Chinese climate elites see the EU, the article first details the nascent theoretical debate on diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing and critically assesses the Chinese discourse on climate change. As an empirical, qualitative study, the article draws on interviews carried out in Beijing, Bonn, and Warsaw in 2012 and 2013. The article's main argument is that the Chinese frame toward the issue of climate change has been converging toward the European frame in the 2000s. During these years increasing energy intensity and environmental pollution raised awareness of climate change effects and vulnerability within the population. The Chinese ascent to the status of the second biggest world economy and increasing engagement in multilateral cooperation has a further effect on its framing of climate change. Located in the discourse post-Copenhagen, it attempts to capture the new global dynamics that have been integral to the subsequent rounds of negotiation and epitomized by the Chinese position during the 2011 COP17 Summit in Durban.

Based on the data collected from cities, this paper analyzes the conditions of tourism location of provinces and autonomous regions. For the method, this paper uses Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and statistical analysis methods to try to analyze tourism geographic conditions from the relationship of tourism industrial location and Chinese arterial highway location, so as to provide a reference for the development of regional tourism.

In 2012, China's urbanization rate reached 52.57% and cities entered into the crucial period of overall transformation, meanwhile, new changes and patterns emerged in urban scientific development. First, even though the pace of economic development in eastern cities slowed down, the livelihood security, ecological environment and city supporting capacity improved significantly, which means the strategy of transformation and restructuring got some achievements. Second, gradient features of city development still remained obviously among provinces. Third, small and medium-sized cities had outstanding performance, which contributed to improvement in urban scientific development. However, the imbalance among different kinds of cities was still serious. Faced with the complex domestic and international development environment, how to keep the main line with development mode transformation and further promote the economic, social and ecological transformation will be a great challenge to China.

Addressing the critique that the global city discourse should tackle the important issue of migration, this article utilizes Sydney as a case study to substantiate and advance the debates. It is a comprehensive literature review on the global Sydney discourse and migration in global Sydney. Concerning global Sydney, it addresses Sydney's rise as a global city and the economic, social, and spatial transformations. Concerning migration, it addresses its increased scale and complexity, spatial settlement and movement, and social polarization and spatial inequality. The article identifies two gaps in the literature: Missing migration in the global Sydney discourse, and failure to address the interplay between global Sydney and migration. Based upon the thematic patterns of the literature, and the identified gaps, some critical reflections are made to suggest a future research agenda — utilizing global Sydney as a meaningful spatial scale for contemporary migration analysis, and developing the analytical frameworks and methodologies that integrate both global Sydney and migration research.

On November 26, 2009, China announced to the world that China would reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40% to 45% compared with the level of 2005. This is "a voluntary action" taken by the Chinese government based on national conditions and was a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change. As a province with a large population, surging economy, and huge energy consumption, Guangdong has pioneered policy research and has run pilot projects, seeking to upgrade its industries and to explore an innovative path toward sustainable development and a low-carbon economy. Energy is a fundamental element of low-carbon development and is critical for building a low-carbon society. This paper analyzes the energy base and energy consumption patterns of Guangdong province, exploring its energy mix, self-supply ratio, energy intensity per unit GDP, energy consumption elasticity, and energy quotas for products and industries. The paper uses three low-carbon indicators — carbon productivity, energy consumption and carbon emission per capita, and energy intensity — to analyze and compare energy patterns in Guangdong and in China as a whole. Finally, the paper proposes energy demand trends along with a roadmap for low-carbon development for Guangdong. This paper can also serve as a reference for other provinces seeking low-carbon development in China.

The heavy haze at the beginning of 2013 makes the PM_2.5 once again a popular topic and sounds the alarm of China's environmental governance. Feedbacks from monitors show that PM_2.5 pollution in China has the characteristics of high level, evenly distributed, complex components, etc. Chinese government has carried out measures to control air pollution including PM_2.5, embarked on the toughest restriction policy of atmospheric pollutants emission, and made some progress. However, due to the complexity of PM_2.5 governance and China's rapid economic development and urbanization process, the PM_2.5 pollution control in China's cities is still faced with some problems. This paper gives the analysis and presents some suggestions.

The National Tourism Conference in 2010 strongly promoted the concept of energy conservation and emission reduction in the tourism industry. Since then, low carbon travel has been the new direction in tourism industry. Great concern has been put on energy conservation and emission reduction of tourism related elements, such as hotels, transportations, tourist attractions, and most importantly, the tourists themselves. The quantitative assessment of tourist carbon footprint is the key topic. This research uses Yesanpo scenic area as the example and conducts the comparison and calculation of tourist carbon footprint from different places, attempts to organize different ideas on ways to analyze tourist carbon footprints, constructs a calculation and assessment model, analyzes and measures the levels of tourist carbon footprints from diverse modes of travel, origins, and purchasing power. This research has developed a system for quantitative assessment of tourist carbon footprints, with the hope of strengthening the theories and methods on low-carbon travel.

India and China have been cooperating with each other at the climate change negotiations since the inception of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. The paper makes a case that although the road has not been very smooth and has not been free of differences, the two powers have been at the forefront of decision-making in global climate governance and in this exercise, and cooperation has been more prominent than competition or rivalry. The paper analyzes the goals and positions of India at the negotiations within the larger framework of the North–South conflict and South–South cooperation. Whether it is the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) or the bottom-up approach toward climate change mitigation, concerns expressed by both countries have largely been similar, especially since they have championed the cause of equity and climate justice for safeguarding the developing countries' right to develop. The paper explains the manner in which India and China have played an influential role in shaping the technicalities and modalities of various climate mechanisms in the context of their relations with the other developing and least developed countries (LDCs). The paper argues that by building more South–South cooperation mechanisms related to climate change issues, India and China can bring about a just and equitable global climate order that assists developing and LDCs in tackling climate change that affects them most.