The making of low-carbon urbanism: Climate change, discursive strategy, and rhetorical decarbonization in Chinese cities

Existing studies of the incorporation of climate mitigation into urban governance are concerned overwhelmingly with the material aspects of low-carbon urbanism. Emphasis is placed upon the measurable, quantifiable, and technical characteristics of carbon, whereas the (uneven) leverage of its rhetoric value across different state spaces/scales is largely overlooked. This paper engages with ongoing theoretical enquiries through a study that applies a discursive-analytical perspective to examining the rise of low-carbon cities (LCCs) and the actual practicing of rhetorical decarbonization strategies in Shenzhen, China. The making of the LCC is found to be incentivized by the perceived symbolic value and enabling power of the climate agenda in attracting higher-level government supports, maintaining local collations, and enticing international attention and investment. This enabling power depends on the interpretive flexibility within decarbonization discourse and the manipulation of the discourse to justify involuntary socio-economic changes. Findings of this research call for greater attention paid to the overlooked discursive dimensions of low-carbon urbanism as the constitutive elements of ongoing global urban transformation processes.