Etiner, Özge C.Demirdelen, ÖzgeDemirdelen, Tuğc¸E2025-01-062025-01-062022978-303072579-2978-303072578-510.1007/978-3-030-72579-2_1522-s2.0-85160706140https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72579-2_152https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14669/1424This study examines China’s global leadership role in the new world order within the context of environmental policy. Energy is both regarded as one of the basic factors to increase the level of welfare and the development of states and related to the countries’ climate change policies. At this point, China has the highest energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the world. Also, China is an important country that needs to be addressed in terms of its climate change policies and activities in the field of renewable en\ergy. In the last years, the Chinese government emphasizes the importance of the environment in their discourses and supports these discourses in order not to experience the 1839–1945 period anymore. From this point of view, this study deals with the relations between China’s environmental policy and its global leadership aims with social constructivist theory and examines whether the legal regulations made in China’s environmental policy are compatible with Chinese government officials’ discourses in this field. Within this framework, China is examined through unstable approaches between policy and discourse. In the light of these analyses, it is found that China’s environmental policy can be understood as an area for constructing its global leadership. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights are reserved.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessChinaClimate changeEnergyEnvironmental policyGlobal leadershipLegal regulationsSocial constructivismBook Chapter339433655