ABSTRACT
China's national leaders have recently made a priority of changing lanes from a pollution-intensive, growth-at-any-cost model to a resource-efficient and sustainable one. There is strong reasoning behind this shift in emphasis: China's leaders see political risks in the rising tide of domestic environmental protests and they worry about energy and resource security. Beijing's determination to steer China toward greater resource efficiency and lower carbon emissions is beyond dispute. Yet creating green and liveable cities remains an uphill battle for national policymakers. The immense challenges of rapid urbanization are one aspect of the problem. An estimated 300 million people will be added to Chinese cities by 2030 (OECD 2009), adding further pressure to cities that already struggle with serious air and water pollution. Central–local relations are another source of difficulty since Beijing's green agenda also does not always find willing followers at lower levels. Indeed, many of Beijing's low-carbon and green initiatives are implemented only selectively across China, when sub-national leaders take the lead.
