Climate change: floods and droughts will be greater dangers for China’s growth than earlier thought, UN scientists say

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Every 1 degree Celsius rise in global warming is projected to lead to a 7 per cent increase in the intensity of extreme daily precipitation events worldwide

The world’s sea level will rise by 60cm (23.6 inches) by 2100, based on the best estimate using emissions scenarios closest to the current trajectory

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A car sitting in flood waters as waves caused by Typhoon In-Fa surge over a barrier along the coast in the Shandong provincial city of Qingdao in eastern China on July 25, 2021. Photo: AFP

Yujie XueandEric Ng

Published: 12:04pm, 12 Aug 2021Updated: 10:01pm, 12 Aug 2021

Extreme floods and droughts, which will become more frequent and severe in the coming years, may pose a greater threat to China’s economic development than previously thought, said two of the authors of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the global phenomenon.

Climate change will intensify the so-called water cycle, the continuous movement of water within the Earth and the atmosphere in the form of rain, snow and clouds, they noted in their sixth annual assessment published on Monday.

“Extreme floods and droughts are the worst threats to China’s social and economic development in the context of climate change,” Wang Wen, professor at Nanjing’s Hohai University and one of the lead authors of the IPCC report, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

To protect vital infrastructure, industries and population centres against extreme weather, authorities will need to build better systems for the storage, supply and drainage of water to enhance the nation’s resilience against both floods and droughts, he said. Early warning systems, enhanced monitoring and forecasts of meteorological and hydrological capabilities are just as important, he said.

A man walks through piles of rubble in the aftermath of flooding in Belgium’s Liege on July 19, 2021, after severe flooding in Germany and Belgium turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and crashed into houses. Photo: AP

Every 1 degree Celsius rise in global warming is projected to lead to a 7 per cent increase in the intensity of extreme daily precipitation events worldwide, according to a “high confidence” projection by the IPCC experts.