IX-2 Question: It has been reported that during this century the global climate will further deteriorate. What's the situation in China in this regard? What impact have weather and climate related disasters had on the Chinese economy? What measures will China take in preventing and mitigating such disasters?
A: Global warming has become a universal consensus and its impact is also felt in China. Agricultural losses from droughts caused by high temperatures are an example. Statistics show that direct losses from climate-related disasters stand at 200 to 300 billion yuan in China, accounting for 2-5 percent of its GDP. In 2006, weather-related disasters alone caused 2,704 deaths and economic losses of 212 billion yuan. Typhoons and severe tropical storms brought the most serious damage, causing direct losses of 69.9 billion yuan.
In addition, intensified El Nino, resulting from global warming, is more likely to bring China more warm winters, causing more floods in its southern part and more droughts in the north. Due to rises in average temperature and evaporation, water shortages and natural hazards in north China will future escalate, impacting agricultural production and the grain production in particular. The warming accelerates crop growth and cuts short the maturity period, thus decreasing yield, which will have a direct bearing on the food security of China with a population of over a billion.
Climate change is attributable to human activities, or specifically, pollutants like greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial age to the current time. According to the Kyoto Protocol, developing countries are now under no obligation to fulfill the emission reduction target set in the protocol. However, China was one of the first countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, in its 2006-10 plan for national economic and social development, China explicitly set the target of reducing the energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent from the 2005 level and has formulated a national climate change strategy. This comprehensive development strategy underlines the efforts to reduce the energy consumption per unit of GDP and increase the use of clean energy, which will be conducive to the achievement of national energy consumption reduction targets. This also demonstrates that the Chinese Government has adopted a serious and responsible attitude toward the issue of climate change.
Moreover, in order to strengthen the monitoring, forecast and evaluation of climate change and formulation of countermeasures, China has started building a system focusing on the research of weather, climate, climate change, ecology and agrometeorology, atmospheric composition, artificial interference with the weather conditions, space weather, and thunder and lightning. This contributes to the enhancement of forecasting the weather, climate and meteorological hazards, providing a strong scientific basis for the response to climate change.
In 2007, as part of China's meteorological hazards monitoring and early-warning program, construction began on the first phase of a monitoring and early-warning system in areas along the coast of the Bohai Bay and its offshore sea areas. Construction has also been expedited on a national climate observatory, alongside the initiation of a pilot project on a national meteorological observation station and speeding up of the building of regional meteorological observation networks. China will launch new-generation polar-orbit meteorological satellites and increase investment in advanced weather radar systems, aiming to form a national weather monitoring network with 158 sets of new-generation weather radars. When in operation, these satellites and the weather radar network will provide substantial professional services for various sectors, and contribute to the prevention and mitigation of climate hazards in China and across the world.
(China.org.cn)