China's environmental problems increasingly attract global attention, yet critics often overlook the sizable efforts of the Chinese people and government to change attitudes and behavior, in order to improve environmental outcomes. This much-needed bo

During the last few decades, China has accomplished unprecedented economic growth and has emerged as the second largest economy in the world. This ‘economic miracle’ has led hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, but has also come at a high cost. Environmental degradation and the impact of environmental pollution on health are nowadays issues of the greatest concern for the Chinese public and the government. The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Policy in China focuses on the environmental challenges of China’s rapidly growing economy and provides a comprehensive overview of the policies developed to address the environmental crisis. Leading international scholars and practitioners examine China’s environmental governance efforts from an interdisciplinary perspective. Divided into five parts, the handbook covers the following key issues: Part I: Development of Environmental Policy in China - Actors and Institutions Part II: Key issues and Strategies for Solution Part III: Policy Instruments and Enforcement Part IV: Related Policy Fields – Conflicts and Synergies Part V: China’s Environmental Policy in the International Context This comprehensive handbook will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of environmental policy and politics, development studies, Chinese studies, geography and international relations.

They affect not only the health and well-being of China but the very future of the planet.

Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development uses Hong Kong to explore environmental economic and social development in China, providing concepts of sustainability, contexts for environmental policymaking, and key challenges in sustainable development.

This book details various stages in the introduction, establishment and evolution of China’s environmental management system. By combining a literature review, comparative analysis, and case study, it investigates the environmental management system in several key periods in order to systematically assess the necessary measures and appropriate adjustments the Chinese Government implemented to reconcile the growing conflicts between economic development and resources conservation, in the context of rapid economic growth and economic transformation. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for experts, scholars, and government officials in related fields.

China's huge environmental challenges are significant for us all. They affect not only the health and well-being of China but the very future of the planet. In the second edition of this acclaimed, trailblazing book, noted China specialist and environmentalist Judith Shapiro investigates China's struggle to achieve sustainable development against a backdrop of acute rural poverty and soaring middle class consumption. Using five core analytical concepts to explore the complexities of this struggle - the implications of globalization, the challenges of governance; contested national identity, the evolution of civil society, and problems of environmental justice and displacement of environmental harm - Shapiro poses a number of pressing questions: Can the Chinese people equitably achieve the higher living standards enjoyed in the developed world? Are China's environmental problems so severe that they may shake the government's stability, legitimacy and control? To what extent are China's environmental problems due to world-wide patterns of consumption? Does China's rise bode ill for the displacement of environmental harm to other parts of the world? And in a world of increasing limits on resources, how can we build a system in which people enjoy equal access to resources without taking them from successive generations, from the vulnerable, or from other species? China and the planet are at a pivotal moment; transformation to a more sustainable development model is still possible. But - as Shapiro persuasively argues - doing so will require humility, creativity, and a rejection of business as usual. The window of opportunity will not be open much longer.

Since the late 1980s, green consumerism has been hailed in the West as an efficient solution to environmental problems. However, Chinese consumers have been slow to warm up to eco-friendly products. Consumers prefer SUVs to hybrid cars, health supplements and snake oil medicines to organic foods and eco-fashion is still secluded in high-end designer studios. These choices contradict the findings of many sustainable lifestyle surveys that claim to register a rising desire for green products among the Chinese. This book examines the psycho-cultural differences that disrupt the translation of "eco-friendly" appeals to China by analyzing environmental advertising. It explores the different notions of "green", the structures of desire that underlies the advertisements, and how they are shaped by ideological, cultural, and historical differences. Rather than arguing the superiority of the American or Chinese version of green consumerism, the book interrogates the role of advertising in the global spread of Western ideologies and explores the possibilities for consumers to resist transnational corporate hegemony in the green movement. This book fills an important gap in the critical scholarship on green marketing and should be of interest to students and scholars of environment studies, green advertising and marketing, environmental communication and media studies, China studies and environmental sociology, ethics and cultural studies.