Philip Andrews-Speed

The regulation of China’s township and village coal mines: a study of complexity and ineffectiveness

An appropriate system of laws and regulations and a suitable institutional structure for administration are important requirements for the effective management of small-scale mines. Over the last twenty years, township and village coal mines in China have made a large contribution to the countrys supply of energy. Yet at the same time they have had substantial negative impacts, such as wastage of coal resources, a high casualty rate amongst miners, and a wide range of environmental damage. Two reasons for the magnitude of these externalities. are the highly complex nature of the institutional structure for regulating small-scale coal mines, and the excessive and incoherent burden of applicable laws and regulations

Reform of China's electric power industry Challenges facing the government

Abstract Chinas electrical power industry requires substantial reform if the countrys economic growth is to be sustained. The 1997 Electricity Law, the creation of a State Power Company and the abolition of the Ministry of Electric Power are important first steps on the path of reform, but it seems that a clear plan is lacking. Objectives of the reform should include increasing the capacity to deliver power, constraining the costs of the power industry, increasing end-user efficiency and minimising environmental damage. Efforts should be directed at restructuring the industry in such a way that fair competition may be introduced, at least in power generation, and at establishing a viable regulatory agency. Both tasks have the potential to be thwarted by a range of vested interests at different levels of government and industry.

The Strategic Implications of China's Energy Needs

Chinas Energy Security Policy Chinas Energy Security Policy-making and Implementation The Strategic Implications of Chinas Energy Needs Conclusion.

Shaping China's Energy Policy: actors and processes

This article develops an analytical framework for examining Chinas energy policy-making processes, and uses it to explain the recent shifts in the countrys energy priorities. The authors analyze the decisive factors in Chinas energy sector reforms by looking at the different stages from agenda setting, through policy choices, to decision making and implementation. The article attempts to identify the actors behind, the drivers for, and the constraints to, the progress of energy sector reforms in China since 1993 and to follow the evolution of these drivers and constraints. This will allow a better understanding of the possible future trends of energy sector reform, the institutional limits to policy change and the constraints to implementation.

Economic analysis of reform policies for small coal mines in China

Abstract Over the last three decades, China’s coal industry has achieved dramatic increases in coal production, both in absolute terms and relative to the world as a whole. This achievement is due largely to its coal policies. Yet facing increasing pressures of environmental sustainability and market transition, the Chinese government was forced to make deep reforms and adjustments to regulate the coal industry effectively. This paper presents an historical overview of China’s coal economic policies, paying particular attention to the current reform policy of closing mines and restricting the yield for the small coal mines (SCMs) in the context of economic theories and methods. We argue that the SCM closure policy would not likely be efficiently enforced if a feasible market mechanism were not built up. The failure of closure policy is due largely to problems of property rights, coal pricing, ownership, and objectives.

The Ongoing Reforms to China's Government and State Sector: The case of the energy industry

Though the reforms announced by the Chinese government in the spring of 1998 appear to be substantial and wide ranging, by themselves they may have little impact either on the effectiveness of government or on the performance of the state industries. Two outstanding problems are the structure and allocation of responsibilities within the government, and the excessive power of the state companies. The tasks of regulation and policy formulation in the energy sector should be clearly allocated in a simple administrative structure which specifically excludes any role for the state companies. The present structure of the state-owned energy industries is such that these companies have a great deal of power, not only in the market but also with respect to the government.

The Overseas Activities of China's National Oil Companies: Rationale and Outlook

The rapid expansion of the overseas activities of Chinas national oil companies (NOCs) has been driven by the needs of both government and NOCs, and this partnership has provoked negative reactions in some other oil importing countries. One goal the government and companies share is to acquire overseas production of oil and gas. In the late 1990s Chinas government worked closely with the NOCs to gain access to projects of strategic importance. Since 2002 the link between the government and the NOCs has loosened perceptively, at least in those countries which lack a strategic significance. The NOCs are behaving more like private sector companies, but still have much to learn, especially with respect to the assessment and evaluation of risk. In the absence of a domestic crisis or a series of commercial failures, it is almost certain that Chinas NOCs will continue their overseas expansion. Attempts to obstruct this spread may be counter‐productive. Partnership rather than confrontation will prove to be mo...

Do the Power Sector Reforms in China Reflect the Interests of Consumers

Chinas electrical power industry has been undergoing piecemeal reforms over the last 15 years. Some of these reforms, such as substantial tariff increases, have been deliberate and have been implemented directly by government. Other changes, such as the increased variety of investors, including foreign investors, have been more spontaneous and have resulted in a gradual evolution in the way the industry works. In 1996 the Chinese government announced a more radical package of reform starting with the new Electricity Law which laid the foundations for a degree of competition in power generation, but without wholesale privatization.

Want, Waste or War? The Global Resource Nexus and the Struggle for Land, Energy, Food, Water and Minerals

In addition to environmental change, the structure and trends of global politics and the economy are also changing as more countries join the ranks of the world’s largest economies with their resource-intensive patterns. The nexus approach, conceptualized as attention to resource connections and their governance ramifications, calls attention to the sustainability of contemporary consumer resource use, lifestyles and supply chains. This book sets out an analytical framework for understanding these nexus issues and the related governance challenges and opportunities. It sheds light on the resource nexus in three realms: markets, interstate relations and local human security. These three realms are the organizing principle of three chapters, before the analysis turns to crosscutting case studies including shale gas, migration, lifestyle changes and resource efficiency, nitrogen fertilizer and food systems, water and the Nile Basin, climate change and security and defense spending. The key issues revolve around competition and conflict over finite natural resources. The authors highlight opportunities to improve both the understanding of nexus challenges and their governance. They critically discuss a global governance approach versus polycentric and multilevel approaches and the lack of those dimensions in many theories of international relations

Mining taxation issues for the future

Abstract During the 1970s and 1980s the main concern of mining policies was to attract investment whilst at the same time balancing the interests of governments and companies. By the turn of the century a new spectrum of challenges faces governments and companies in the mining sector. The need for fiscal regimes to adapt to price cyclicity is to some extent superseded by the requirement that they adapt to a long-term decline of metal prices. The growing importance of environmental and community affairs in the mining sector will force governments to design coherent and comprehensive tax regulations to complement the wide range of initiatives being taken in these fields. Finally, the age-old problem of tax collection continues to raise its head in transition and developing economies.