Over the past four decades, China has achieved unprecedented, sustained

economic growth that the world has ever experienced; however, its increasingly

severe environmental problems, which arise with the rapid economic development,

are being deliberated domestically and internationally (Zhao and Patten, 2016; Weber,

2017; Yu and Rowe, 2017). As the world's second largest economy enters the "new

era", China attempts to shift its focus from quantitative economic targets to more

sustainable economic development, which requires a compatible institutional setting

to facilitate a more balanced growth substantiated by social, environmental and

economic sustainability. Being the most populous country with the largest energy

consumption in the world, China's development has such a profound global impact

that it would need to be more sustainable to align with a wider group of stakeholders

beyond China.