In the Anthropocene, debates about global climate risks have taken carbon as a measure of policy success, with land-based mitigation strategies like afforestation receiving particular scrutiny. While scientists and policymakers discuss forestry as a potential climate solution, China has been implementing massive forestry projects for decades, drastically transforming environments under the Ecological Civilization framework. This article showcases China’s globally emerging paradigm of Eco-Civilization and its implications for the climate-forestry nexus. Drawing parallels with Ulrich Beck’s concept of ‘metamorphosis’ and Bruno Latour’s concept of ‘mutation,’ we argue that China’s Eco-Civilization aspires to a fundamental transformation in worldview – but one that is promoted as distinctly non-Western. We use the case of forestry to illuminate the potentially unique features of Chinese environmentalism as encapsulated in Eco-Civilization. We find that Eco-Civilization affords a strong role for the central state in actively building and constructing an ecological future in which the natural and the socio-political are not considered separate. This is in contrast to certain Western visions of preserving nature from human encroachment through grassroots environmental movements. We conclude by highlighting the theoretical contributions more pluralized debates about China’s environmental rise could bring to environmental sociology.

Climate change is characterized as one of the most pressing issues in the twenty-first century. There are still many uncertainties related to the rapidity of these changes and how devastating they will be. It is recognized that climate change poses a major threat to important development issues such as water supply, food security, human health, natural resources and protection against natural hazards. Thus, modern society is challenged to manage growing risks and threats. In terms of responses to risks posed by climate change, it has been argued that governments are important actors that play a key role setting regulations, institutions and appropriate modes of governance in order to address these risks at different levels and scales. This article investigates whether climate change risks have promoted the construction of a climate agenda in some Brazilian coastal cities and analyses how climate change risks are being framed by local governments in terms of policy strategies and instruments in these cities. The analysed cities do not have specific climate strategies, but climate change risks have been addressed by local governments in their different sectors of activity. Our findings suggest that the responses to climate-related risks are blended with the responses to problems typically faced by local governments, such as floods, irregular land occupation, landslides on hillside areas, among others, which can be exacerbated by climate change. These responses are not in step with governmental actors’ perceptions and concerns, particularly with regard to risks related to sea level rise. In this sense, multi-level and intersectoral responses are required.

China clearly matters when it comes to global efforts to mitigate climate change and any successful international efforts to stabilize greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions must inevitably include the country. In terms of climate change responses, it is argued that governments are important actors that play a key role in defining appropriate rules, institutions and modes of governance to meet these changes at different levels and scales and in enforcing the defined rules and regulations. This article presents a detailed case study aimed at the analysis of how Chinese policies and governance structures related to climate change have evolved over the past 20 years, particularly from 1992 to 2015, and how they have influenced Chinese GHG emissions during this period.