EnvJustice

By Bowen Gu and Juan Liu

Chapter found at the book The Routledge Handbook of Grassroots Climate Activism

ABSTRACT

China burns half of the coal produced in the world. As of 2022, coal still makes up more than 50 percent of China’s total primary energy use. China’s dependency on coal poses significant and enduring challenges for its energy transition and the prospect of global climate goals. On the other hand, the environmental, social and health impacts of coal have also been increasingly recognized. In recent years, local communities, activists and NGOs in China have turned to various tools and approaches to contest projects in the coal value chain, ranging from direct confrontation and creative artistic intervention, to legal vehicles such as environmental public interest litigation (EPIL). These initiatives are usually not labelled as climate activism by the protagonists, but nevertheless are closely connected to the global climate movement. This chapter provides an overview and examples of the “unlabelled” climate activism in China, including the multiple strategies and tactics, diverse actors, and varied levels of impact of these initiatives, as well as the visions they advocate for and the multi-dimensional dilemmas they face in the broader context of climate activism in the Global South. The discussion draws upon empirical insights from fieldwork in China and case studies in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas). It contributes to the discussion about public participation in China’s environmental and climate governance system.

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