(ORDO NEWS) — Extreme weather has wreaked havoc in recent weeks, with prolonged heatwaves causing droughts and wildfires around the world.
China‘s 2021 Climate Assessment found that coastal water levels last year were the highest since 1980. China also recorded a 7.9% increase in land cover in 2021 compared to the 2001-2020 average.
China’s average soil temperature has risen much faster than the global average over the past 70 years and will remain “significantly higher” in the future, Chinese experts say, as challenges posed by climate change intensify.
The China Meteorological Bureau has called the country a “sensitive region to global climate change” where temperatures have risen by 0.26 degrees Celsius in the decade since 1951, compared to the global average of 0.15 degrees.
“In the future, the increase in average regional temperatures in China will be significantly higher than in the world,” said Yuan Jiashuang, deputy director of China’s National Climate Center (NCC).
He warned that changing weather conditions in China would affect the balance of water resources, make ecosystems more vulnerable and reduce crop yields.
Extreme weather has wreaked havoc in recent weeks, with prolonged heatwaves causing droughts and wildfires around the world. Historically high rainfall in some countries has also led to deadly floods.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres last month warned that “no nation is immune” to climate change and said the world now has to choose between “collective action or collective suicide.”
China has been experiencing hot weather for weeks now. In the southwestern part of Yunnan and Hebei, the temperature exceeds 44C.
China’s 2021 Climate Assessment found that coastal water levels last year were the highest since 1980. Glacier retreat has also accelerated, active permafrost along the Qinghai-Tibet highway has reached an all-time high, and sea ice has continued to shrink.
China also recorded a 7.9% increase in vegetation cover in 2021 compared to the 2001-2020 average, and the assessment notes that growth periods for many plants start earlier each year.
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