China plans the
implementation of a nationwide market-based mechanism for greenhouse gas
mitigation, appearing thus to replicate the method used most notably in the
European Union to price greenhouse gas emissions. However, China’s new
mechanism represents only be the tip of the mitigation iceberg. Banking on the
unique characteristics of a socialist market economy, China’s government has
largely relied on State-Owned Enterprises as a tool for implementing rapid
change. In this article, we discuss the role played by Chinese SOEs to advance
the country’s ambitious mitigation objectives. After a general description of
the incentives created for emission limitation and energy saving through SOE
supervision, we highlight the corresponding efforts made in the fossil-fuel,
power-generation, and other key mitigation sectors.