Textual and Quantitative Research on Ocean Energy Policy System of
Local Government in China (2005-2015)
Wei Yang
*
and Weixin Luan
School of Maritime economics and management, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China.
Keywords: Ocean energy policy, local government, policy tools, content analysis
Abstract: Ocean energy is an important marine resource, the development and utilization of ocean energy can be one
of the important ways to improve and optimize energy structure and reduce environmental pollution.
Currently, the technology of ocean energy is immature and costly, and does not have large-scale commercial
application. In this situation, this technology needs to be supported by strong policies. The policies of local
governments in China are individual and operable, which can provide necessary cooperation and
supplement to the policy of the central government. Based on the classification standard of policy tools, the
study adopts the content quantitative analysis method to analyse the 242 policies issued by 11 coastal
provinces and cities of China between 2005 and 2015. The study is based on three dimensions which are the
policy number, issued form and policy content. The research shows that: (1) During 2005 and 2015, regions
with relatively developed marine economy, such as Shandon, Guangdong and Zhejiang province, issued the
largest number of policies, showing a positively relationship between the attention to ocean energy policy
and the level of marine economy development; (2) The policy format increasingly diversified, especially
from 2011 to 2015, the local government enacted a large number of practical and operational policies, ocean
energy policies changed from a form of "opinion" to "planning"; (3) The unbalanced policy tools structure,
the overflowed environmental policy tools and the insufficiently utilized demand type policy tools are the
reasons why incentive mechanism of the ocean energy market has not yet been formed.
1 INTRODUCTION
Many countries or governments have initiated and
encouraged to use renewable clean energy in
response to environment and climate change
challenges. The countries, such as UK, Germany,
Denmark and others, have implemented a series of
policies to support the development of ocean energy
industry. Since 2010, China has set up a Special
Funding Plan for Marine Renewable Energy
(SFPMRE) to support research and development of
ocean energy technology and equipment. The
development of ocean energy will be guaranteed by
the corresponding policies from central and local
government. Specifically, central government will
guide and support in macro level, while local
governments makes micro operational policies.
In recent year, researches on ocean energy in
China mainly have focused on the role of ocean
energy policies, legal regime and development
trends. For instance, Xu et al reviewed the strategic
planning of ocean energy policies in China from
1990 to 2010 (Xu et al., 2015). Ding et al reviewed
the policies of UK government to promote the ocean
energy industry (Ding and Liu, 2013). Chang et al
discussed the legal regime to explore the ocean
energy in China (Chang, 2014). Wang et al
discussed how to make policy route of ocean energy
in China (Wang et al., 2016).Although previous
studies have made great progress, they have some
limitations: First, these studies pay more attention to
the relevant ocean energy policy of the central
government, the lack of research local government
policy of specific characteristics. Second, these
studies rely mainly on logical research and lack of
quantitative analysis. In order to fill the gap, this
article adopts content analysis method, which study
of ocean energy policy in 11 coastal provinces and
cities of China, a quantitative analysis based on the
classification standard of policy tools, to reveal the
150
Yang, W. and Luan, W.
Textual and Quantitative Research on Ocean Energy Policy System of Local Government in China (2005-2015).
In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Environment and Geoscience (IWEG 2018), pages 150-155
ISBN: 978-989-758-342-1
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

local government in the ocean energy development
evolution process of policy making.
2 DATA USED AND
METHODOLOGY
2.1 Data Used
The article collects the ocean energy policy issued
by 11 coastal provinces and cities of China from
2005 to 2015, establishes a policy database of 242
policies.
Based on the key words "ocean energy" and
"marine renewable energy", the policy text is
collected in the database of the "Beida Fabao- Laws
& Regulations Chinese Database",
‘http://www.pkulaw.cn/’. Ensuring the effectiveness
and correctness of the collection policy, this paper
selects policy text based on the following principles:
First, policies promulgated must by 11 coastal
provinces and cities of China, Shandong, Zhejiang,
Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangsu,
Liaoning, Hebei, Shanghai and Tianjin, not
including national level issued by the relevant local
policies promulgated and other provinces. Second,
policies closely related to ocean energy, including
ocean waves, tidal range, tidal currents, ocean
current, ocean thermal energy conversion and
salinity gradients, offshore wind, marine biomass
which occupy sea space but do not directly utilize
the properties of seawater, are not included in this
paper. Third, the policy form must be in accordance
with laws and regulations, opinion, plan, notice or
other documents, reply are not included.
2.2 Textual and Quantitative
Methodology
First, this paper adopts the content analysis method
to code 242 ocean energy policy texts released by 11
coastal provinces and cities of China, according to
"policy number-specific terms/chapters”. Second,
based on the classification method of Rothwell and
Zegevld (1985), Liao (2016), it is divided into three
types of policy tools: supply, environment and
demand, and subdivided into five sub-categories
under each category according to the characteristics
of ocean energy policy, the formation of ocean
energy policy text content analysis unit code table.
Third, classify and summarize the frequency of text
content.
3 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
3.1 Overall Analysis
This part would be divided into a count of the
number of policies and secondly the form of the
policy.
3.1.1 Policy Number
Chinese government usually follows five years as a
planning period. This paper divides the period from
2005 to 2015 into two equal periods, which conducts
a comparative analysis of the evolution
characteristics of the ocean energy policy in local
governments. Figure 1 shows the number of policies
released by 11 coastal provinces and cites of China
in two periods.
From 2005 to 2015, local government issued 242
ocean energy policies, the most widely publicized
provinces and cities are Shandong, Guangdong,
Zhejiang and Fujian, and the least is Hebei and
Tianjin. In the period of 2005 to 2010 and 2011 to
2015, there were 105 and 137 policies were issued
respectively. It increased 30 percent compared these
two periods, and all provinces and cities issued
policies related to the development and utilization of
ocean energy. Policy sharply increased since 2011,
was the cause of the central government attaches
great importance to renewable energy, local
governments have to implement the central
government of ocean energy policy, especially in the
southeast coastal area, ocean energy is rich in
resources, and the overall policy number is higher
than the northern coastal areas.
It is worth noting that the developed areas of the
marine economy pay more attention to the
development and utilization of ocean energy, and
more policies are issued. The development and
utilization of ocean energy technology is still in the
embryonic stage, the period of industrialization
process and investment return are longer. A large
number of policies will enhance investors'
enthusiasm to investment and promote the healthy
development of ocean energy industry.
Textual and Quantitative Research on Ocean Energy Policy System of Local Government in China (2005-2015)
151

Figure 1: The number of ocean energy policies in 11 coastal provinces and cities of China.
Figure 2: The number of ocean energy policy issuing format.
3.1.2 Policy-Issuing Forms
From 2005 to 2015, the policy forms include: the
"notice", "opinion", " action plan”, “catalogue”,
“outline plan”, “development plan", "functional
regionalization" and "regulations" of eight different
policies, reflects the diversification forms of Chinese
local government to support the central government
ocean energy industry policy. Figure 2 shows the
comparing number of ocean energy policy issuing
format in two periods.
Most policy form is the "notice", "opinion",
"action plan", accounted for 70% of the total,
followed by "outline plan" and "development plan"
accounted for 12% and 10%, initially formed ocean
industrial linkage effects between the energy
industry and other industries. The "catalogue"
accounts for 11%, reflecting the lack of attention of
local governments to industry information. The
relatively small number of “regulations” and
“functional zoning” policies with legal effect,
accounting for just 5%, indicates that the policies
issued by local governments in China are generally
lack of authority and compulsion. During 2005 and
2010, policy form mainly in “notice " and "opinion"
is given priority to; during the period of 2011 and
2015, "outline", "development plan" and " action
plan " increased significantly, the proportion of the
local government attaches great importance to the
information of ocean energy development and the
planning of the concrete implementation plan, the
policy more practical and execution.
3.2 Analysis Three Types Of Policy
Tools
Based on Content Analysis Methodology (method of
policy text quantitative), the author has classified
242 policies into 270 articles in accordance with
policy tools and summarizes them. The imbalanced
structure of policy tools is the main feature of the
ocean energy policy of local governments in China.
From 2005 to 2015, the ratio in environment,
supply and demand is 38:50:12. It reflects that local
government take priority to develop ocean energy,
especially development plan and supporting, such as
investment of technology, financing, information
0 20406080
Shandong
Fujian
Guangxi
Jiangsu
Hebei
Tianjing
2005‐2010
2011‐2015
0
20
40
60
Notice Regulations
Functional
Regionalizat
ion
Opinion
OutlinePlan Developme
ntPlan
ActionPlan
Catalogue
2005‐2010 2011‐2015
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support and infrastructure construction, etc.
However, it is necessary to make more demanding
policies in ocean energy. In the 11 coastal provinces
and cities of China, the more balanced regions are
Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong and Fujian, Tianjin,
and the rest six provinces lack of demand policies
tool. The situation reflects the local government
although the build ocean energy development gave
attaches great importance to environmental policy,
also pay attention to support direct factors, but
realized consumption link of ocean energy support is
insufficient, failed to form a good mechanism of
ocean energy utilization development market-
oriented operation.
3.2.1 Supply Types of Policies
Results in Table 1 imply that, from 2005 to 2010,
local governments chose four policy tools,
information services (58%), technology input (31%),
infrastructure (8%), talent cultivation (3%), and
financing support tools were not selected. From
2011 to 2015, the number of policy tools for science
and technology input and infrastructure construction
increased substantially, and the information service
continued to grow steadily, reflect the efforts of
local governments to realize the transformation of
the ocean energy technology.
However, local governments are not fully aware
of the important role of talents in ocean energy
technology innovation, and the use of financing
support tools is insufficient, which is extremely
unfavorable to the sustainable development of ocean
energy industry. From perspective of the top four
provinces, Fujian province has significant increase
in supply policy tools, Shandong, Guangdong and
Zhejiang province has maintained steady growth,
Jiangsu province has experienced a significant
decline.
3.2.2 Environmental Types of Policies
During the period of 2005-2015, the local
government chose 135 policies of environmental
tools, mainly choosing goal formulating
(75%),institution setting (13%) and regulations
(10%) take second place, the least are intellectual
property protection (3%) and preferential tax (1%).
Results in Table 2 imply that, comparing two
periods, the goal formulating increased significant.
The situation reflected the local government began
to pay highly attention to ocean energy industry
development planning, set up a corresponding
mechanism of ocean energy management, also in a
certain extent regulate ocean energy development
and utilization, but lack of the system of intellectual
property protection and preferential tax support of
ocean energy enterprises, may cause negative effect
in the technical innovation and attract talent.
Table 1: The number of supply policy types
a
.
Year 2005-2010 2011-2015
Instrument Number Top 4 province
b
Number Top 4 province
Talent cultivation 1 FJ 1 FJ
Technology input 11 SD,ZJ,GD,JS 21 GD,FJ,ZJ,SD
Information services 21 SD,ZJ, GD, JS 25 SD,FJ,ZJ,JS
Financing support 0 - 5 FJ,ZJ,JS,TJ
Infrastructure 3 FJ,SD, HN, 15 SD,GD,FJ,ZJ
Total 36 SD,ZJ,GD,JS 67 FJ,SD,GD,ZJ
a
The top four provinces are sorted by number descending order. When the number of clauses appears is same, the policy
form is prioritized. If is still impossible to tell whether the number of specific types of ocean energy is prioritized. Table 2
and Table 3 are compiled according to the above principles.
b
Full name of top 4 provinces : SD-Shandong, ZJ-Zhejiang, GD-Guangdong, FJ-Fujian, JS-Jiangsu, HN-Hainan, TJ-
Tianjin.
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153

Table 2: The number of environmental policy types
a
.
Year 2005-2010 2011-2015
Instrument Number Top 4 province
b
Number Top 4 province
Preferential tax 1 FJ 1 GD
Intellectual property Protection 2 SD,ZJ 2 SD
Regulations 5 SD,ZJ,GD,GX 8 SD,GX,ZJ,GD
Institution setting 12 GD,GX,LN,FJ 6 GX,GD
Goal formulating 43 SD,ZJ,GD,LN 55 SD,ZJ,GD,FJ
Total 63 SD,GD,ZJ,LN 72 SD,ZJ,GD,FJ
a
In accordance with the principles of Table 1
b
Full name of top 4 provinces : SD-Shandong, ZJ-Zhejiang, GD-Guangdong, FJ-Fujian, JS-Jiangsu, GX-Guangxi, LN-
Liaoning
Table 3: The number of environmental policy types
a
.
Year 2005-2010 2011-2015
Instrument Number Top 4 province
b
Number Top 4 province
Government procurement 0 - 1 GD
Price subsidy 2 SD,ZJ 1 GD
Trade control 0 - 0 -
Demonstration project 2 SD,GD 18 SD,ZJ,GD,FJ
International cooperation 3 SD 5 TJ,SD,ZJ,GD
Total 7 SD,GD,ZJ 25 SD,ZJ,GD,FJ
a
In accordance with the principles of Table 1
b
Full name of top 4 provinces: SD-Shandong, ZJ-Zhejiang, GD-Guangdong, FJ-Fujian, TJ-Tianjin
It is worth noting that from the perspective of the
specific content of goal programming, only
Shandong province, Guangdong province and
Zhejiang province made practical operational
planning, which is according to the local natural
resources endowment, the rest eight local
governments lack of individuality to plan
development of ocean energy industry, the
homogenization tendency of development planning.
At the same time, some local governments' ocean
energy policy objectives have the stealing concept of
and pursuing short-term interests, such as Fujian
province which instead of developing ocean energy
developed wind energy. The reason is that wind
energy development profits in short period. In this
case, it will waste limited resources.
3.2.3 Demand Types of Policies
The lack of demand policy is an important
bottleneck restricting the sustainable development of
ocean energy. Results in Table 3 imply that, from
2005 to 2010, Chinese local governments selected
three policy tools, international cooperation (43%),
price subsidy (29%), and demonstration project
(29%). It reflects that the local government mainly
introduces foreign investment and foreign advanced
technology in the period, and also preliminarily
reserves and accumulates experience for Marine
energy grid power generation. From 2011 to 2015,
local governments selected all demand types of
policies except trade control, especially
demonstration project which accounts for 72 percent.
From the perspective of 11 provinces and cities
during 2005 to 2010, Shandong province chose three
types of demand policy tools, Zhejiang and
Guangdong also chose the policy tools of price
subsidy and demonstration project respectively.
From 2011 to 2015, provinces in Shandong,
Guangdong and Zhejiang have strengthened the
policy of demonstration projects and international
cooperation. Especially Guangdong province has a
strong policy of government procurement and price
subsidies.
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The three provinces positive ocean energy policy
has gained the support of the central government,
the “Outline for the Development of Marine
Renewable Energy (2013-2016)” was release by the
State Oceanic Administration of China in December
2013, which deployed three test sites, the national
small-scale test site in Shandong, the national tidal
energy full scale test site in Zhejiang, and the
national wave energy full scale test site in
Guangdong (OES 2015). Especially Guangdong
owned operational project, the Sharp-Eagle
Wanshan, the amount of electricity accumulated was
more than 50 MWh until December 2017 (OES
2017).
4 CONCLUSIONS
After analyzing the ocean energy policies launched
by 11 coastal provinces and cities of China’s
governments from 2005 to 2015, the results showed
that compared between two periods, these launched
more policies, paid much attention on development
plan of ocean energy and proposed some specific
practical programs. Especially, the regions with
developed marine economy, such as Shandong,
Guangdong and Zhejiang, are more concerned with
the development of ocean energy. However, there
still exist unbalanced policy tools, over using
environmental policy, lacking supply and demand
policy and restricting development and use of ocean
energy. Those provinces, such as Shandong,
Zhejiang and Guangdong, applied comprehensive
policy tools, while other provinces only took one or
some of policy tools.
In conclusion, the author proposed that central
government will need to strengthen supervision of
ocean energy to local governments to avoid short-
term profit pursuit and homogenization. Second,
local governments could apply government
procurement, price subsidy and trade control to
decrease the frequency of environmental policy and
increase the choice of supply and demand policy,
which will help to develop and use ocean energy
reasonably. The paper is based on textual and
quantitative method to analyze the characteristics
policy of 11 coastal provinces and cities in China. It
will help central and local government to connect
their ocean energy policy and do further research.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Weixin Luan, the major project of national social
science fund (14ZDB131). “Research on land or sea
as a whole strategic under the background of
construction of marine power in our country”.
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