WWF contacts
Dongmei Chen
Climate & Energy Director
WWF China Programme Office,
Beijing
+86 10 65116211 ext 6209
Climate change impacts in China - what the IPCC 4th Assessment Report has found:
- Northwest China 0.7°C increase in mean annual temperature from 1961 to 2000. Between 22% and 33% increase in rainfall [10.2.2].
- Increase in frequency of short duration heat waves in recent decade, increasing warmer days and nights in recent decades [10.2.3].
- Increasing frequency of extreme rains in western and southern parts including Changjiang river, and decrease in northern regions; More floods in Changjiang river in past decade; more frequent floods in Northeast China since 1990s; More intense summer rains in East China; Severe flood in 1999; 7-fold increase in frequency of floods since 1950s [10.2.3].
- Tibet: Observed increase in animal (livestock) production related to warming in summer and annual temperature (1978-2002) [1.3.6.1].
- Decrease in the frost period in northern China by 10 days and advances in spring phenology [1.3.6.1].
- Tibetan Plateau glaciers of less than 4 km in length are projected to disappear with 3°C temperature rise and no change in precipitation. If current warming rates are maintained, glaciers located over Tibetan Plateau are likely to shrink at very rapid rates from 500,000 km2 in 1995 to 100,000 km2 by the 2030s. [10.4.4.3,10.6.2]
- The entire Himalayan Hindu Kush ice mass has decreased in the last two decades and the ratio of melt accelerates. Water supply in areas fed by HKH glacier melt, on which hundreds of millions of people in China and India depend, will be negatively affected [3.4].
- Due to large populations and high exposure to sea level rise, storm surge and river flooding megadeltas, such as the Zhujiang are especially affected [T10.9, 10.6].
- Warmer climate, precipitation decline and droughts in most delta regions of China have resulted in drying up of wetlands and severe degradation of ecosystems [10.2.4.4].