{"id":32797,"date":"2015-03-23T11:33:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T11:33:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-05-14T18:45:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:45:11","slug":"7797-china-faces-grave-risks-from-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/7797-china-faces-grave-risks-from-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"China faces ‘grave risks’ from climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"
China’s most senior weather official has given a strong warning on climate change, saying that rising temperatures could have "huge impacts" on the country’s food and water supplies, state media reported on Sunday<\/a>.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Rising global temperatures would harm crop yields, prompt "ecological degradation" and create unstable river flows, according to a Xinhua report of comments made by Zheng Guoguang, chief of China’s Meteorological Administration<\/a>. <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
“As the world warms, risks of climate change and climate disasters to China could become more grave," Zheng said.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Temperature increases in China over the past century had been more extreme than global averages<\/a>, Zheng added.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Zheng said climate change is a "serious threat" to several of China’s flagship infrastructure projects,  including the Three Gorges Dam<\/a>, which the country’s largest power station; a sprawling scheme that diverts water from the country’s rainy south to parched northern provinces<\/a>; and a railway connecting Tibet<\/a> with northwest China.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Zheng called for China to take a "low-carbon development path" but he also told state media that the potential for wind and solar energy was "limited".<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
The weather official’s comments come as China and other large emitters prepare to release national climate plans<\/a> that will outline potential emissions cuts and measures to adapt to climate change.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
The plans, which will be submitted the UN over the next few months, will form the basis of a climate summit to be held in Paris at the end of this year, where it is hoped countries will agree a comprehensive deal to cut greenhouse gases.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Although some international media reported the comments as a rare admission<\/a> of the threat that climate change poses to China, Zheng’s predecessor, Qin Dahe, issued a similar warning eight years ago<\/a>. <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Last year, the UN’s climate science arm, the International Panel and Climate Change said China faced multiple and potentially catastrophic risks from climate change<\/a>, including widespread coastal flooding of megacities including Shanghai, falling crop yields and the melting of permafrost, which would harm water supply.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
The comments from China’s most senior meteorologist came ahead of a UN report on the world’s climate in 2014<\/a>.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Record ocean heat, high land-surface temperatures and devastating flooding were some of the defining characteristics of the global climate last year, said the World Meteorological Organisation. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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