Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Marc Gronwald: China's Climate Policy Discourse: A Provincial-Level Analysis**
Lecture Information:
Topic:China's Climate Policy Discourse: A Provincial-Level Analysis
Speaker:Associate Professor Marc Gronwald, International Business School Suzhou, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Moderator:Professor Zhang Dayong, Institute of Economic and Management
Time:October 29 (Thursday), 14:00-15:30
Venue:Room 1211, Gezhi Building, Liulin Campus
Speaker's Biography:
Marc Gronwald holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Hamburg, Germany. He is currently an Associate Professor at the International Business School Suzhou, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Prior to this, he worked at Baoding University and the ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich. He is a CESifo Research Network Fellow and a research associate at the ifo Center for Energy, Climate, and Exhaustible Resources.
His research focuses on two main areas. First, he examines financial markets closely related to the climate crisis, including climate finance, carbon emission trading systems, and the crude oil market. He is particularly interested in capturing and interpreting the behavioral characteristics of univariate and multivariate data in these markets. Second, he is dedicated to using innovative data in novel ways, with a focus on measuring concerns about climate change. Recently, his research has expanded into the field of climatometrics, where he applies time series methods to analyze climate and weather data.
Lecture Content:
This lecture will provide a provincial-level analysis of China's climate policy discourse. It will explore the various dimensions of climate policy at the provincial level, examining how different regions approach and implement climate policies. The discussion will include an in-depth look at the key drivers, challenges, and outcomes of these policies, as well as the role of local governance and stakeholder engagement. The speaker will also share insights from his recent research, which uses advanced econometric techniques to analyze climate and weather data, providing a comprehensive understanding of the impact of climate policies across different provinces in China.
This paper examines climate policy uncertainty in China across time and space and analyses its persistence. The analysis is based on provincial-level climate policy coverage in national media across 31 provinces that differ markedly in economic structure and institutional capacity. Using the China Climate Policy Uncertainty (CCPU) index as a measure of policy uncertainty, and applying a time-varying autoregressive framework to measure persistence, we find substantial provincial heterogeneity. Persistence is higher and more variable in coastal economic powerhouses and lower and more stable in inland provinces. A large number of provinces show a sharp increase in persistence after 2020, coinciding with the global disruptions of recent years. The findings suggest that climate policy uncertainty varies across provinces and is shaped by economic context.
