China: new hegemon of the global climate regime?

Abstract

This article addresses the question of a possible Chinese hegemony on the international climate
regime. It first discusses the origin and meaning of the concepts of leadership and hegemony. It then
analyses the evolution of the climate regime from the adoption of the United Nations Framework
Conference on Climate Change in 1992 to the adoption of the Paris Agreement at the end of 2015.
In the third part, it analyses possible international consequences in terms of hegemony of the
radical change in China’s climate change strategy observed during the first decade of this century.