China has launched the first international cooperative research program on global climate change organized and led by Chinese scientists, announced on Monday in Beijing.

 

The research program comes under the auspices of the International Project Office (IPO) for the Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS), which is based in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

 

Professor Frits Penning de Vries, director of the MAIRS IPO, said at the official launch ceremony that an emerging branch of Earth system science will help with research on the causes, and impact of regional climatic changes.

 

According to Professor de Vries, the heads of the four major global change programs - the World Climate Research Program, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, the International Human Dimensions Program and the International Biodiversity Research Program - decided in 2004 to create a joint research program targeted at the Asia Monsoon Region.

 

Deforestation and pollution from intensive industrial development have modified monsoon patterns, Prof de Vries said.

 

The international steering committee for MAIRS is comprises more than 20 internationaaly recognized scientists from countries including China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

 

Fu Congbin, a CAS academician, leads the steering committee.

 

Scientific and executive plans for the program are scheduled to be published in November.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2006)