Duan, Rui. The Impact of policy fragmentation on transportation energy transition in China's power battery recycling: a conflict-of-interest perspective. Master's Degree(Public Policy). Chiang Mai University. Library. : Chiang Mai University, 2025.
The Impact of policy fragmentation on transportation energy transition in China's power battery recycling: a conflict-of-interest perspective
Abstract:
This paper rigorously analyses the ongoing fragmentation in China's power battery recycling system, especially evident within its Multi-Level Governance (MLG) framework, which considerably hinders the country's transition to sustainable transport energy. This research utilises Marxist interest theory as its main analytical framework to examine the complex interactions of interests, relationships, and inherent conflicts among principal stakeholders, including the central government (representing state capital), local governments (functioning as regional capital agents), various corporate entities (industrial and speculative capital), and the public (the proletariat). Research indicates that fragmentation is fundamentally entrenched in significant class-based interest contradictions, including the temporal discord between long-term national sustainability objectives and short-term regional economic development, the ecological dilemma of capital logic favouring profit over environmental preservation, and the class constraints on state autonomy in reconciling public and elite interests. These conflicts result in systemic governance failures, significant lithium resource depletion, market instability that sustains exploitative practices, and profound ecological degradation. This study presents a comprehensive array of policy recommendations across four strategic domains: enhancing central-local collaborative governance via unified objectives and integrated digital platforms ; reforming stakeholder incentive structures to bolster producer accountability and public engagement ; promoting technological innovation to standardise and expand recycling methodologies ; and intensifying international cooperation to align standards and advance global circular economy partnerships, incorporating insights from nations such as Thailand. This research emphasises that a robust and effective power battery recycling ecosystem requires essential changes in interest alignment and governance frameworks to genuinely facilitate China's green transformation in transportation.