<Chapter 1> Development and Environmental Policy under Neo-Corporatism: Slow Progress toward Pluralistic Decision-Making in Japan

This pdf is non-edited author's draft. Its published version is the following paper: Akihisa Mori, Development and environmental policy under neo-corporatism: Slow progress toward pluralistic decision-making in Japan 'Democratization, Decentralization, and Environmental Governance in Asia' pp.26-51. Kyoto University Press (March 2012).このPDFファイルの論文を草稿として、その後改稿されたものは、次のように書籍掲載論文として出版されています: Akihisa Mori, Development and environmental policy under neo-corporatism: Slow progress toward pluralistic decision-making in Japan 'Democratization, Decentralization, and Environmental Governance in Asia' pp.26-51. 京都大学学術出版会 (2012年3月)

<Chapter 1> Climate-energy policy: Domestic policy process, outcome and impacts (Part I Why China’s carbon-energy policy matters)

Edited by Akihisa MoriAs an introduction, this chapter aims to define the five key concepts throughout this volume to develop a logical framework that links them: the climate-energy conundrum, climate-energy policy, socio-technological transition, the resource curse, and the disruption of livelihood and ecology. In short, the global climate change concerns raises the climate-energy conundrum, while technological and institutional lock-in makes it hard for the government to advance socio-technological transition of the energy infrastructure system toward a low CO2 emission pathway. Climate-energy policy is generally created as a compromise among the conflicts of interests between multiple stakeholders, which would be less effective in reducing CO2 emission and bring domestic and/or international implications or both, including a resource curse and the disruption of livelihood and ecology. The framework also points out that, climate-energy policy and its domestic and international implications vary by country, alluding to possible consequences found through in-depth analyses of later chapters

8. Impact of the resource boom in the 2000s on Asian-Pacific energy exporting countries, Akihisa Mori and Le Dong (Part III International impacts of China-induced resource boom and climate-energy policy)

Edited by Akihisa Mor

<Chapter 10> Impact of the China-induced Coal Boom in Indonesia: From a Resource Governance Perspective (Part III International impacts of China-induced resource boom and climate-energy policy)

Edited by Akihisa MoriThough Indonesia is well-known as major oil and gas exporter, it becomes net oil importer. It then turns out as a major coal exporter amid the China-induced coal boom. Meanwhile, coalmines are criticized as harmful to ecology and local livelihood, as many of them are located in the forest. Against this backdrop, this chapter analyzes how the China-induced coal boom has affected resource governance. It employs the typology on natural resource governance presented by Luong and Weinthal (2010) to assess how Indonesia’s democratic decentralization and the revision of its Forest Law affected coalmining and deforestation. This chapter reveals that democratic decentralization changed the ownership structure to from state ownership without control to private ownership with control, and generated duplicate licensing authority and inconsistent and contradictory rules between the central and local governments, all of which have resulted in weak central control and widespread corruption. Chinese companies have capitalized on this weak control, backing local companies or their joint companies to obtain licenses---thus accelerating open cast mining. They have also invested in major Indonesian miners, gaining political power to protect their vested interests, which makes it difficult for the Indonesian government to enforce more stringent environmental and social safeguard policies and to shifting the energy system toward a low CO2 pathway

<Chapter 5> Environmental policies in East Asia: Origins, development, and future

Environmental policies vary, depending on how a country frames and defines environmental challenges. Underlying causes of the environmental challenges can be classified as market failure, undefined ownership, government and/or institution failure, and globalization and their combination. The government of each country has seen the underlying causes as they wanted and chose policy instruments based upon their recognition. Coupled with the differences in economic development, pressures to the environmental challenges, and their management capacity, this has brought about difference in the choice of policy instruments, enforcement, effectiveness, and distributional impacts. For an environmental policy to be more effective, it is indispensable for the government to frame environmental challenges and to address their underlying causes properly. Then all the government ministries and the political leaders should share the proper framing and definition so that they will take the environment into account in their sectoral policies, in other words, implement preventive measures and convince people and firm to integrate the environment into their activities

Introduction: Sustainable development and environmental governance in East Asia

Edited by Akihisa Mor

How do incumbent companies’ heterogeneous responses affect sustainability transitions? Insights from China’s major incumbent power generators

Transitions research has often been unintentionally biased toward novelty and assumes incumbents as homogeneous groups that are “locked-in” to certain socio-technical regimes. In reality, incumbents are heterogeneous at the company and industrial levels and thus have heterogeneous responses that can both accelerate and deter sustainability transitions. To fill the research gap, this paper explores the determinants of such heterogeneous responses and insights for sustainability transitions, taking China’s major incumbent power generators as its case study. The results are: first, incumbent companies respond heterogeneously if firm-specific, socio-economic, and institutional factors give different opportunities and barriers. Policy feedback effects and development of complementarities in infrastructure, instruments, and organizational elements can increase heterogeneous responses. Second, their heterogeneous responses can accelerate sustainability transitions if they go beyond destabilization of regime, legitimization of alternative policy instruments, and development of infrastructure and institutions that trigger co-evolution with socio-economic and institutional factors

Environmental soft loan program in Asian countries: industrial pollution control or mal-use of foreign aid resources?

Several Asian countries have tried to establish environmental soft loan program as a measure for industrial pollution control, with financial and technical assistances from Asian Development Bank, Germany and Japan. However, the program may contradict with OECD's Polluter Pays Principle and may result in inefficient allocation of foreign aid, and may disturb financial market development. This article examines conditions and contexts in which environmental soft loan program can be justified from theoretical arguments and a case study of Japan. Then, it tries to clarify how the recipient countries satisfied the above conditions and contexts through comparative analysis of the program in Indonesia, Thailand, China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The author documents that the required conditions and contexts are so severe that only the Philippines could satisfy them, mainly due to mission, impartiality and competency of the Development Bank of the Philippines, as well as availability of environmental technologies and competent consultants

<Chapter 12> Conclusions: Domestic structure and international impacts of China’s climate-energy policy (Part IV Summary and future challenges)

This concluding chapter wraps up the main findings of the chapters, highlighting the linkage between China’s domestic policy process to address climate-energy conundrum and Asian-Pacific energy exporters’ higher dependency on China and their moves toward a high CO2 pathway. Then it presents possible ways to redirect the high CO2 pathway as future challenges in research and in action

Chapter 5 Changes in trade and economic structure during the past 25 years: have green growth, low carbon strategies made a signifi cant impact in Northeast Asia?

Edited by Fumikazu Yoshida and Akihisa MoriThis chapter made an empirical analysis on the change in the trade structures of environmental and pollution-intensive industries in Northeast Asia during the last 25 years. Both industries in South Korea and China have shifted to more export-oriented, in part due to China’s accession to the WTO. Green growth strategy has significantly increased export of goods related to renewable energy in South Korea while has ambiguous trade impacts in China. While Japan has been net exporter in both industries, its export surplus in environmental industry decreased gradually, implying Japan receives side effects of green growth strategy in South Korea and China