Research on the national climate governance system toward carbon neutrality—A critical literature review

Global climate governance has entered the era of carbon neutrality, as a growing number of countries have set the goal of carbon neutrality for long-term emissions reduction toward the mid-21st century. In 2020, China also pledged itself to the goal of carbon neutrality, which creates an urgent demand for this country to establish a systematic and integrated national climate governance system. Against this background, this paper conducts a systematic literature review of climate governance systems from the perspectives of top-level design and the governance paradigm to bring insights into climate governance toward carbon neutrality. The results show that although there are interactions between decarbonization and other environmental, social and economic fields, research gaps still exist when enhancing climate governance toward carbon neutrality. For example, issues regarding incorporating climate factors into the overall economic and social layout, strengthening the capacity of data collection relevant to climate adaptation, integrating climate mitigation and adaption actions, as well as connecting domestic climate governance and international cooperation, need to be further addressed. In addition, within the national governance system, studies combining both regional and sectoral concerns and the intertemporal dynamic allocation mechanism need to be further addressed when China decomposes its national climate target. Moreover, the division of power between the central government and local government, as well as the communication scheme between government and non-state actors, also turns out to be important for effective governance. Based on this analysis, policy implications are further proposed for China's formulation and implementation of long-term strategies of climate governance toward carbon neutrality.