Environmental Innovation for Sustainable Development: The Role of China

CHINA IS TODAY THE WORLD’S LARGEST USER OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SUCH AS FOSSIL FUELS, BIOMASS, MINERALS AND metal ores, but also a leader in environmental innovation for sustainable development. China is today also the world’s second largest user of freshwater resources, and the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases that lead to climate change (World Bank, 2015). As per capita natural resources are limited and below the world average (Pamlin and Baijin, 2007), innovation in the environmental field is crucial for enabling sustainable development. Recently, China has become one of the global leaders in environmental innovation, for example in the fields of hydropower, solar energy, wind energy and electro-mobility (Urban et al., 2012; Lema and Lema, 2012). At the same time, the lack of sufficient domestic natural resources has driven China to invest overseas in low and middle income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to access natural resources such as energy and minerals, to access new markets and to create employment overseas for Chinese workers (Mohan and Power, 2008; McDonald et al., 2009). It is theorized that by doing so Chinese actors may be able to transfer environmental technology, innovation and knowledge to countries and trading partners in the global South and thereby influence the development and environment agenda of the recipient countries. Yet little empirical research exists in this field to support or reject this point. This special issue, written by leading experts from China and world-wide, explores the complex and multifaceted relationship of environmental innovation, sustainable development and the role of China, from both the domestic perspective of China and that of China’s overseas impacts in low and middle income countries. The special issue also discusses how China aims for sustainable development and examines these issues from an environmental innovation perspective. This raises two issues: first, China’s domestic agendas for environmental innovation for sustainable development (or sustainability-oriented innovation systems, as Altenburg and Pegels (2012) frame it), and second, how these may be exported to other countries via trade, aid and investments. This special issue approaches these issues from various novel and holistic perspectives: First it brings together the environmental, social, political, economic, technical and development agendas of sustainability-oriented innovation, which still tend to be discussed in siloes rather than together, particularly in relation to China (Tyfield et al., 2014). Tyfield et al. (this issue), Urban et al. (this issue) and Nordensvard and Urban (this issue) aim to align these debates by discussing the importance of social innovation, political perspectives and development agendas for sustainability-oriented innovation. Second, the special issue addresses both China’s domestic perspectives in the field of environmental innovation and sustainable development and its overseas impacts in low and middle income countries. In particular, the environmental impacts of Chinese investments overseas are still largely under-explored (Urban et al., 2013), especially with regards to innovation. This special issue provides empirical evidence to this new field of study. Third, this special issue deals particularly with issues that are relevant for low carbon transitions in the light of climate change, such as low carbon innovation in the energy, transport and agriculture sectors, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Tyfield et al. (this issue) explore environmental innovation in China and its potential for contributing to global transitions to low carbon, more sustainable patterns of development. The paper examines key domains of low