With an expected accelerated urbanization process until 2050, China is facing big challenges of mitigating CO2 emissions, especially in the eastern coastal metropolitan regions. Since cities are the hubs for innovation regarding new technologies and infrastructures, investments and governance, they are playing an important role in decision-making and implementation processes on the way to a decarbonized economy and society. The national and provincial administrations in China have already started to address the issue of energy system transition toward a low-carbon pathway, but long-term integrated transition plans are not yet available on a regional level. In our paper, we therefore consider the main challenges of the energy system transition, such as efficiency improvement, coal reduction, decarbonization of transport, and multisector electrification with regional integration, focusing on two eastern coastal metropolitan regions of China. A systematic review of current near-term policies reveals how far these challenges have already been addressed on different administrative levels and which gaps may exist from an external perspective. Based on the current decision- and policy-making processes among national, regional, provincial and municipal levels, policy implications are identified with regard to an effective energy system transition in eastern China.
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