China’s Development of ETS as a GHG Mitigating Policy Tool: A Case of Policy Diffusion or Domestic Drivers?

China launched its national emissions trading scheme (ETS) in late 2017. This article examines the key drivers behind China’s 2011 decision to opt for ETS as a GHG mitigating policy tool and what lay behind the choice of the system’s design features. Given the existence of the frontrunner EU ETS and that market mechanisms have spread across the world in recent years, we analyze the role played by policy diffusion in the decision to launch an ETS and in the subsequent design process, seen in relation to domestic drivers. The article investigates policy developments culminating in the 2011 carbon market announcement, and the reasons these design elements were chosen for the pilot schemes and the national market in the period 2011–2017. The article contributes to our understanding of policy diffusion at different stages of policy development in China, by revealing which diffusion mechanism is more prevalent at different stages. We find first that overall domestic conditions and drivers had the most consistent impact on policy decisions to establish a carbon market and on the selected sectors. However, a second key finding is that the role of policy diffusion varied over time, with such diffusion, in the form of ideational impact, playing the most important role early on, providing a powerful inducement for China to go for a carbon market. Third, sophisticated learning from international projects took place in the pilots, allowing China to adapt policies and design features to match local conditions.     

Assessment of PowerPlex® Fusion 5C’s ability to type degraded DNA

DNA samples collected at crime scenes are often degraded so this research focused on the ability of the Promega PowerPlex® Fusion 5C amplification kit to type both naturally and artificially degraded DNA.DNA was degraded naturally by placing equal volumes of blood on white fabric that was stored either inside, outside in a shaded area, or outside in direct sunlight. Samples were then collected every 10 days for 60 days and the DNA extracted (QIAamp® DNA Investigator). Artificially degraded samples were created by exposing extracted DNA to either UV light or 95 °C heat for varying times. DNA was also degraded artificially by placing blood samples into a 50% bleach solution for varying times prior to extraction.Following sample treatment, standard forensic DNA analysis was performed including quantification (Investigator® Quantiplex) and amplification (PowerPlex® Fusion 5C). Separation and detection were performed on an ABI 3130xl capillary electrophoresis unit and analysis was performed using GeneMapper ID v3.2.1.While the time and shade samples showed similar amounts of degradation, the samples exposed to direct sun showed more degradation. The artificially degraded samples showed more signs of degradation such as reduced overall peak height and peak height imbalance at heterozygous loci. There were also some cases where an allele that was known to be in the profile exhibited total dropout. Although there were some instances of both allelic dropout and heterozygote peak imbalance, PowerPlex® Fusion was able to reliably type degraded DNA as all alleles detected were consistent with the known donor profile. The results show that PowerPlex® Fusion is a robust kit capable of handling forensically challenged samples.