Brief Introduction on Climate Change Impact and Chinas Action
From 1906 to 2005, the average global surface temperature has increased by 0.74℃. Of the warmest 12 years of the recent 150 years, 11 of those years occurred from 1995 to 2006. In the 20th century, the global sea level has increased by about 0.17 meters, with the yearly rate being 1.8 mm from 1961 to 2003, and 3.1 mm per year from 1993 to 2003. Since the third assessment report of 2001, the forecast on precipitation distribution has been improved. The precipitation in high latitude regions may increase while decreasing in most of the subtropical continental areas. The frequency of high temperature, heat wave and intensive precipitation weather may continuously increase, wind speed of typhoons and hurricanes will increase, precipitation will be more intense, and their destructive forces will be more serious. Furthermore, the flood recurrence interval of once per thousand years may decrease to once per hundred years, and a flood that came once per hundred years may now strike once per fifty years or even shorter. In some regions, extreme unprecedented meteorological events may occur. Economic losses caused by these meteorological disasters have been increasing. The total population suffering from such meteorological disasters is about 600 million and the disaster-affected farmlands can be up to 500 million mu (1 ha=15 mu) each year. The risks related to safety operation of important projects are increasing. The trend of Chinas coastal sea level rise will certainly continue unabated. Compared with 2000, the sea level will increase by 0.13 to 0.22 meters by 2050, which will affect the estuary ecosystem and coastal regions economy. Coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs will degrade. Sea level rise and extreme meteorological events will aggravate oceanic disasters, such as storm surges, red tides, salt sea water intrusion and salini-zation. As to population centers, large coastal cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou will be directly threatened by sea level rise, which will in turn affect the estuary ecosystem and coastal regions economy. In China, seventy percent of large cities, half of the total population and sixty percent of the national economic production lie in low-lying coastal areas. Thus, the estuary ecosystem and marine biological resources will be severely affected. Finally, this paper describes Chinas principles, system construction, overall objectives, capacity building and action strategies etc. in counteracting climate changes.
Gao Yun
ivision of Climate Change, Science & Technology Department.China Meteorological Administration
国际会议
北京
英文
274-279
2008-11-06（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）