China is actively engaged in developing technologies to battle
climate change and reduce global warming, a senior official said
yesterday.
Lu Xuedu, vice-director of the Ministry of Science and
Technology's Office of Global Environment, said the nation has
achieved fruitful results in scientific research through a series
of major projects in the past years.
The projects include "Global Climate Change and Environmental
Policies", "Study on Terrestrial Ecosystems Carbon Cycle and its
Mechanism in China", "Research on the Formation Mechanism and
Prediction Theory of Severe Climatic Disasters in China" and "The
Trend and Influence of China's Climate and Sea Level Change".
His remarks come at a time when climate change is a hot topic at
the ongoing G8 summit in Germany.
The National Mid-term and Long-term Science and Technology
Development Plan (2006-20) issued in February last year and the
National Climate Change Program released on Sunday have set the
goal of developing climate change technologies.
A relatively complete atmosphere observation network is in place
and the satellite environmental monitoring system is being
improved.
Besides, China has actively participated in international
science and technology collaboration to tackle global warming.
Lu said China would focus on developing technologies for precise
climate monitoring, energy-efficient resources, greenhouse gas
emission control to slow down climate change.
Lu said climate change can have a severely negative influence on
agriculture and animal husbandry, ecosystems, water resources and
coastal regions.
For example, warming will turn more semi-arid regions in West
China into deserts and considerably reduce wetland areas in the
Sanjiang Plain in Northeast China.
It will result in degeneration of frozen soil on the
Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, threatening major projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
Climate change will also speed up shrinking of inland lakes and
aggravate water shortage. The sea level rising will bring more
floods and damage costal regions' ecosystem. Electricity
consumption will rise sharply as more air conditioners are needed
because of warming.
Zhang Chenyi, a senior researcher with the China Meteorological
Administration, said the government should take effective measures
to reduce emission of greenhouse gases to avoid climate
disasters.
Zhang said clean energies, including solar energy and wind
power, should enjoy priority development.
(China Daily June 8, 2007)
