(Earth System Governance)
by Yixian Sun (Author)
A comprehensive study of the growth, potential, and limits of
transnational eco-certification in China and the implications for other
emerging economies.
China has long prioritized economic
growth over environmental protection. But in recent years, the country
has become a global leader in the fight to save the planet by promoting
clean energy, cutting air and water pollution, and developing a system
of green finance. In Certifying China, Yixian Sun explores the
potential and limits of transnational eco-certification in moving the
world’s most populous country toward sustainable consumption and
production. He identifies the forces that drive companies from three
sectors—seafood, palm oil, and tea—to embrace eco-certification. The
success of eco-certification, he says, will depend on the extent to
which it wins the support of domestic actors in fast-growing emerging
economies.
The assumption of eco-certification is that demand
along the supply chain can drive businesses to adopt good practices for
social, environmental, and economic sustainability by specifying rules
for production, third-party verification, and product labeling. Through
case studies drawn from extensive fieldwork and mixed methods, Sun
traces the processes by which certification programs originating from
the Global North were introduced in China and gradually gained traction.
He finds that the rise of eco-certification in the Chinese market is
mainly driven by state actors, including government-sponsored industry
associations, who seek benefits of transnational governance for their
own development goals. The book challenges the conventional wisdom that
the Chinese state has little interest in supporting transnational
governance, offering novel insights into the interaction between state
and non-state actors in earth system governance in emerging economies.
