The EU-China strategic partnership in climate change: the biodiversity programme. EU Diplomacy Paper 02/2011, March 2011

The economic reform in China did not take into consideration consequences such as social adaptation and land degradation. As a result, civil society and environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) are becoming more active and visible actors in China’s environmental politics. Chinese civil society is involved in environ-mental issues by carrying out government functions, but it lacks capabilities and resources to tackle environmental matters alone. This paper examines the European Union’s (EU) cooperation with China in the fight against climate change. It asks to what extent the EU has realised the importance of Chinese civil society in the environmental field and how the latter can play a role in the strategic partnership between the EU and China. It is argued that the shift in the behaviour of Chinese society and its relationship with the government could further improve the EU-China partnership in the fight against climate change. The EU needs to understand the role of Chinese ENGOs in implementing and improving environmental policies in China. The approach of Civic Environmentalism, which focuses on local efforts, introduces a bottom-up perspective in the environmental dialogue. The case of the EU-China Biodiversity Programme serves as an example to illustrate the usefulness of such an approach.