UC Berkeley

China’s ecological civilization concept claims a new, Chinese model of promoting economic growth while reducing environmental pollution at the same time. This dissertation uses interdisciplinary methods to analyze two of China’s flagship ecological civilization policies, the national carbon market and the Belt and Road Initiative. While the national carbon market exemplifies China’s changing approach to domestic environmental policy, the Belt and Road Initiative is carrying the Chinese model of ecological civilization overseas. The first part of this dissertation focuses on China’s national carbon market. I use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the interactions between a national carbon market and China’s ongoing structural economic transition, thereby yielding macro-scale evidence and policy suggestions for how China can fulfill ecological civilization goals of increasing GDP while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Next, I investigate the carbon market from a qualitative perspective, assessing how emissions accounting is used as a foundation for policy-making. I also explore the capacity building community that sustains the carbon market, asking broader questions about how Chinese neoliberalism informs the formation of the national carbon market. The second part of this dissertation focuses on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), situating it in the context of leakage, or relocation of production in response to environmental regulation. Through a novel empirical study, I test the assumption that BRI projects may be better or worse for the environment than other sources of finance. I then explore potential mechanisms of Chinese overseas finance exceptionalism, informing ongoing policy and advocacy debates about how to engage with the growing scale of China’s overseas investment.