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Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the world's two largest countries requires feasible governance pathways that integrate politics, policy and administration. Using examples of successful mitigation at the local level in China (Guangzhou) and India (Gujarat), this article identifies integrated governance solutions that work in both cases through different types of linkages. In China, it is mainly intra-governmental linkages, while in India it is mainly state–society linkages. In neither case do international negotiations concerning emissions targets have significant effects, while national frameworks have only marginal effects. Approaching the problem in this comparative manner helps to clarify how greenhouse gas governance operates in each country, the lessons for central–local environmental relations, and the implications for international assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to official Chinese statistics, sulfur dioxide emissions dropped significantly in the late 1990s before rising again. Some researchers have expressed concern over data reliability, however, and the sample of enterprises represented by sulfur dioxide emission statistics generates only one third of China's industrial output, which may result in undercounting of emissions. In addition, coal production and consumption during the late 1990s may have been undercounted due to politically motivated manipulation of numbers, and this phenomenon may also partly explain the reported reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions. Coal sulfur content derived from coal supply-side information is generally found to he higher than from demand-side information used to calculate emissions for official statistics. Meanwhile, no solid data are available that demonstrate improvement of the desulfurization of smokestack emissions. All of these are potential factors in the underestimation of China's emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]