This project looks at formal and informal institutions in Chinese and Russian climate policy implementation, and asks: Under which conditions and in what ways does the low governing capacity of these countries influence their climate-mitigation measures?

This question is approached by examining how weak formal institutions and strong informal institutions contribute to the processes of mitigation policy formulation and implementation. What mechanisms influential to the outcomes of mitigation policies do these institutional dynamics create in the planned economy tradition? What do these mechanisms look like in practice, who drives them and why, and how do they influence mitigation policy processes? And how do the outputs of climate policy processes look, as a result of these mechanisms?

Can some common lessons be learnt, or can China and Russia be expected to follow completely separate logics in terms of formulating and implementing their mitigation policies?

Project period: 2014-2020