The changing role of the state: two governance models of China’s low-carbon energy transitions

• Proposes a framework examines how governance structures co-evolve with different transition pathways. • Explores regional differences in China’s green energy transitions. • Challenges the dominant perception of China’s low-carbon transitions as being exclusively driven by ubiquitous state-led models. • Illustrates two governance models that emerged in two of China’s provinces. The paper examines the changing role of the state in sustainability transitions by exploring how governance structures co-evolve with different transition pathways. Using the case of China’s green energy transitions, we compare two distinct governance structures that have emerged in two Chinese provinces. The analysis challenges the dominant narrative that China’s transitions are exclusively state-led, demonstrating that divergent governance structures can emerge at the subnational level. Specifically, we identify two models: one that adheres to a centralised power system, referred to as the developmental state model; the other departs from the existing model by building more distributed energy systems driven by a wide range of actors, referred to as ‘distributed governance structures’. While it remains uncertain whether these two models will complement or compete each other in the future, they represent two divergent transition pathways that could shape China’s future low-carbon development.