China will continue to support other nations to combat climate crisis

While promoting climate adaptation at home, China will continue to support other developing nations in adapting to the climate crisis, said Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of ecology and environment. 

Zhao, also head of the Chinese delegation to the COP28 United Nations climate change conference, made the remarks at a sideline event held on the China pavilion at the annual UN gathering on Wednesday.

The frequent extreme weather events caused by climate change have resulted in increasingly greater damages in China and around the world, he stressed.

Roughly 3 billion people around the globe are now in a highly fragile environment because of global warming, he said, quoting a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body that assesses the science related to climate change.

Now, the annual economic loss caused by climate change has reached roughly $380 million, compared with $49 million half a century ago, he said. 

In China, about 283 million people were affected by meteorological disasters every year from 2004 to 2022, he said. On average, these disasters annually resulted in a direct economic loss of 310 billion yuan ($43.3 billion). 

To cope with the problem, China made public the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035 in June last year, arranging climate adaptation in key sectors, he said.

Since then, many regions have hammered out regional plans for climate adaptation, with some of them already made public, he noted.

In a move to enhance cities' capability for climate adaptation, Zhao said, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, with another seven national government bodies, published a guideline on carrying out pilot programs for building climate-resilient cities in August.

The ministry is still selecting pilot cities, he added.

In the face of the urgent climate crisis, all parties must carry out immediate actions to adapt comprehensively to minimize the impacts and losses the crisis causes, he said.

"In fact, developing nations are confronted with even greater impacts from climate change. They urgently need to ramp up their capability on climate adaptation," he noted.

The vice-minister said China has always proactively supported other developing nations to enhance their climate adaptation capabilities.

Aside from aiding a remote-sensing microsatellite to Ethiopia, China has donated mobile data receiving and processing systems for environmental and meteorological satellites to Bolivia, Uruguay and Botswana, he said.

He said China has also provided training programs themed on meteorological monitoring and disaster early warning for over 100 officials and technicians from more than 20 countries.

China and the World Meteorological Organization signed an agreement in April, he said. In response to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' Early Warning for All Initiative, the two sides will jointly develop early warning projects under South-South climate cooperation. 

"Under the framework of South-South climate cooperation, China will continue to aid small island states, least developed countries and African nations to beef up their capability on addressing the climate crisis," he said.