China\u27s renewable energy policy : from project-based to strategic policy making: cases of wind and solar

China is challenged by the imbalance between rapid economic growth and lacking environmental protection. Economic growth and increasingly intensive use of energy are certainly the main causes of environmental degradation in China. However, the central state tries to find a way out of the energy-environment dilemma. In 2005, the Chinese president Hu Jin-Tao emphasized that renewable energy was “an indispensable measure to deal with the increasingly serious issues of energy and environment”. The following year, China\u27s Renewable Energy Law took effect, indicating a turning point in the energy policy. This paper investigates China’s wind and solar energy, because they both reflect proactive policies and major changes in China’s energy policy. We will discuss the trajectories that are leading from a past policy which was based on more ad hoc and projects, to an increased institutionalization of renewable energy as a strategic choice in China’s energy mix