Climate Click

The effects of climate change could seriously damage the Chinese economy in the near future, according to the Chinese government’s latest research into the phenomenon. Both food and water supplies are threatened with critical shortages, while an increase in flooding and drought could ravage vulnerable areas.

The 710-page “Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change” was published last year, but only recently entered the public domain. Authored by teams of government-supervised scientists, the report builds on an initial assessment conducted in 2007 to provide evidence and forecasting which will shape, rather than set, government policy.

The booming industry that has put millions of new cars on China’s roads and sprouted legions of factories has helped propel China towards its current status as the world’s second-largest economy. However, it has also made China the world’s biggest producer of the harmful greenhouse gasses which now present a long-term threat to the impressive growth in prosperity.

According to the report, China’s carbon-dioxide emissions (a major “greenhouse gas”) will only begin to diminish after 2030, with no significant drop until around 2050. By then, if current global warming trends are allowed to continue unhindered, China’s grain output could fall by up to 20 percent. This, says the report, could potentially be offset to a degree by the fertilizing effects of more carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, in addition to shrewd crop choices and improvements to farming practices.

However, by the end of the century, based on the results of various projections of greenhouse gas levels, China’s atmospheric temperature will increase by between 2.5 and 4.6 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average. It is the effect this warming will have on the country’s water which poses the greatest danger to society.