HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.4

Strengthening Climate Risk Governance in China: Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Xiaofan ZHAO  and Ye QI

 

 

China is among the countries most susceptible to climate risks. Climate risks emerge from interactions involving climate-related hazards, e.g., extreme weather events and gradually escalating environmental changes, with exposure and susceptibility of human and natural systems. Climate risks are systematic and influence all facets of the socio-economic system, requiring an integrated framework encompassing two policy areas. The first is climate risk governance, which can potentially reduce climate risk by incentivizing the behavior of human communities. The second is climate change adaptation, which moderates harm or takes advantage of climate change through adjustment. This bulletin, based on the findings of Qi et al. (2021), shows, however, that China’s climate risk governance relies heavily on the government sector and centers on conventional disaster prevention and mitigation efforts. A climate change adaptation framework that synthesizes government, private sector, and community action remains unfledged. This bulletin recommends integrating climate risk governance and climate change adaptation into national development strategies, developing a pluralistic disaster risk-reduction system, and constructing climate-resilient smart cities.

 

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Authors

 

Xiaofan ZHAO Assistant Professor in the Division of Public Policy (PPOL) at HKUST. Her research interests include climate change, energy and environmental policy, theories of the policy process, and regulatory enforcement and compliance. She concentrates on energy conservation and climate change policies with a geographical focus on China and comparative environmental governance with a global scope. Her articles have been published in well-known journals, including World Development, Energy Research & Social Science, Energy Policy, The Journal of Cleaner Production, Environmental Policy and Governance, etc.

 

 

 

Ye QI Professor in the Division of Public Policy (PPOL) at HKUST. His expertise includes environmental policy and governance, sustainability science, climate change, and Chinese environmental and energy policy. His articles have appeared in notable journals, e.g., Nature Geoscience, Applied Energy, Energy Policy, and Environmental Policy and Governance. He has been the Cheung Kong Professor of Environmental Policy and Management and the Volkswagen Professor of Sustainability at Tsinghua University. He has served as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley..

 

Further reading

Qi, Ye., Zhou, D., Zhao, Xiaofan, Li, H., Wang, Y., & Wang, B. (2021). Enhancing Climate Risk Governance in China. UK-China Collaboration on Climate Risk Assessment (Phase III).. Data & Policy, 3: e29.