China poorly prepared to handle impact of climate change, report says

The country is poorly prepared to tackle the impact of climate change that presents a serious threat to the country, thanks to a lack of planning and public awareness, the government said.

The world's most populous country already faces challenges from weather extremes, with 2,000 people dying on average each year since the 1990s in natural disasters that are set to get worse, the top economic planning agency said.

"Our country is a developing nation with a large population, complex climate conditions and a weak environment [situation]," the National Development and Reform Commission said in a report. "Climate change is already a serious threat to food, water, ecological and energy security, and to people's lives and property," it added.

"The mission to deal with climate change is very arduous, but knowledge in society and ability to do this are weak across the board."

The country is seeing more droughts in its northern region, with typhoons arriving earlier, wetlands drying up and sea levels rising, said the document, published in coordination with several ministries, including the Agriculture Ministry.

"In the future the rising trend of temperatures will become even more obvious, there will be even more unfavourable impacts [from climate change], and if effective measures are not taken the losses from disasters caused by extreme weather will be even more serious," the agency added.