China formally pledged to peak its carbon emissions within 10 years and achieve carbon neutrality within 30 years thereafter. Considering the numerous challenges and difficulties ahead, it is essential for China to strengthen the building of climate governance systems toward carbon neutrality. This paper examines the interactions between elements of China's climate governance system, and develops a theoretical framework for China's climate governance toward carbon neutrality, with a view to providing more comprehensive information for decision-making.

China's high ambitions to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 make climate governance an urgent issue. Against this background, this paper develops a TAM (‘Target, Actor, Mechanism’) theoretical framework for China's climate governance toward carbon neutrality, intending to provide information for decision-making. This framework, centering on governance actors, is based on two key assumptions: First, the stance of each actor toward a climate action depends on the impact of this action on the actor's objectives and the weight of these objectives to this actor; Second, the most feasible governance mechanism is the solution that can best satisfy actors' objective with the greatest decision-making influence. Applying this framework in case studies involves three major steps: (1) Identifying China's climate governance actions according to transition pathways toward carbon neutrality; (2) Assessing the effects of climate actions on the objective of relevant actors; (3) Obtaining feasible governance mechanisms based on historical institutionalism analysis. By linking different climate governance research methodologies, this theoretical framework can provide decision-makers with more comprehensive information on climate governance.

Integrating quantitative models with institutionalism can bridge the gap between policy formulation and implementation.