China is actively engaged in developing technologies to battle climate change and reduce global warming, a senior official said yesterday.

Lu Xuedu, vice-director of the Ministry of Science and Technology's Office of Global Environment, said the nation has achieved fruitful results in scientific research through a series of major projects in the past years.

The projects include "Global Climate Change and Environmental Policies", "Study on Terrestrial Ecosystems Carbon Cycle and its Mechanism in China", "Research on the Formation Mechanism and Prediction Theory of Severe Climatic Disasters in China" and "The Trend and Influence of China's Climate and Sea Level Change".

His remarks come at a time when climate change is a hot topic at the ongoing G8 summit in Germany.

The National Mid-term and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-20) issued in February last year and the National Climate Change Program released on Sunday have set the goal of developing climate change technologies.

A relatively complete atmosphere observation network is in place and the satellite environmental monitoring system is being improved.

Besides, China has actively participated in international science and technology collaboration to tackle global warming.

Lu said China would focus on developing technologies for precise climate monitoring, energy-efficient resources, greenhouse gas emission control to slow down climate change.

Lu said climate change can have a severely negative influence on agriculture and animal husbandry, ecosystems, water resources and coastal regions.

For example, warming will turn more semi-arid regions in West China into deserts and considerably reduce wetland areas in the Sanjiang Plain in Northeast China.

It will result in degeneration of frozen soil on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, threatening major projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

Climate change will also speed up shrinking of inland lakes and aggravate water shortage. The sea level rising will bring more floods and damage costal regions' ecosystem. Electricity consumption will rise sharply as more air conditioners are needed because of warming.

Zhang Chenyi, a senior researcher with the China Meteorological Administration, said the government should take effective measures to reduce emission of greenhouse gases to avoid climate disasters.

Zhang said clean energies, including solar energy and wind power, should enjoy priority development.

(China Daily 06/08/2007 page2)