Navigating ecological civilisation: Polycentric environmental governance and policy regulatory framework in China

Amidst global environmental and energy crises, China has institutionalized its Ecological Civilisation as a transformative governance paradigm, synergising multiple policy instruments with environmental modernization. This paper utilises Grounded Theory to systematically analyse 56 environmental policies with significant energy governance components encompassing 510,000 words, identifying three primary categories in China's environmental policy pathways: pollution control, carbon reduction, and green expansion. Further analysis using the Institutional Grammar Tool deconstructs the regulatory components of these pathways. The analysis reveals a tripartite regulatory framework: (1) AIC (Attributes, Aim, Conditions) strategic policy statements (41 % of policies), which establish both implementation flexibility and structured policy experimentation, enabling local governments to adapt and innovate while ensuring the central objectives; (2) ADIC (Attributes, Deontic, Aim, Conditions) normative statements (44 %), balancing market autonomy with state direction; and (3) ADICO (Attributes, Deontic, Aim, Conditions, Or Else) rule-based statements (15 %), enforcing stringent compliance in high-stakes sectors such as fossil fuel industries. The findings demonstrate how China's polycentric governance model strategically calibrates regulatory rigidity and flexibility, challenging conventional dichotomies between command-and-control and market-based approaches. The study advances theoretical debates on modern environmentalism and institutional design while providing actionable insights for environmental and energy policymakers navigating the trade-offs between central stringent regulation and local adaptation and flexibility. By elucidating the textual architecture of environmental regulation, particularly in energy-related policies accounting for a significant portion of China's environmental mandates, this research contributes a novel policy science perspective to environmental and energy governance systems, with implications for both hierarchical and decentralized governance systems.