Climate Change and Natural Disasters

According to The 2019 Report on the State of the Ecology and Environment in China issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the status of China's climate change and natural disasters is as follows:

Climate change

Air temperature In 2019, the national average air temperature was 10.34°C, 0.79°C higher than the historical average and 0.25°C higher than that of 2018, being the fifth warm year since 1951. The temperature in each month of the year was higher than historical average, of which the temperature in April was 1.8°C higher, marking the second highest compared with the same period in historical records.

The average temperature in the six major regions of the country was higher than the historical average. Among them, the temperature in Northeast China was 1.1°C higher, the second highest in historical records; that in South China was 0.7°C higher, the third highest in historical records. Except for the slightly lower temperature in some places like Guizhou, Chongqing and Xinjiang, the temperature of other parts was higher than the historical average, among which the temperatures were 1~2°C higher in most of Northeast China, southeastern part of North China, most of Huanghuai, eastern Inner Mongolia, northeast of Xinjiang, eastern part of Yunnan, southern part of Sichuan and Hainan.

Precipitation The national average precipitation was 645.5 mm in 2019, up by 2.5 percent compared with the historical average and down by 4.2 percent compared with that of 2018, being the eighth consecutive rainy year since 2012. The precipitation was higher than the historical average during January to April, July to August, October and December. In specific, the precipitation in February was 32 percent more than the historical average; the precipitation in September and November was less than the historical average, with November 28 percent less than average; while the precipitation in May and June was close to the same period of the historical average.

The annual precipitation in Yangjiang of Guangdong province (3,055.2 mm) and Dongxing of Guangxi province (2,984.7 mm) were the highest and second-highest in the country, while Turpan of Xinjiang autonomous region (1.9 mm) and Toksun of Xinjiang autonomous region (3.3 mm) were the lowest and second lowest in the country.

Compared with average year, the precipitation in North China was higher, and that in South China was similar to or less than the historical average. Among them, the precipitation in the central and northern part of Northeast China, the central and eastern part of Northwest China, the western part of Inner Mongolia, the southwestern part of Xinjiang, the western part of Tibet, the northern part of Sichuan and the eastern part of Zhejiang was 20 percent to 50 percent more than historical average; that of northeast Heilongjiang, western Gansu, western Inner Mongolia, northern Qinghai was 50 percent to 100 percent more than historical average; that of the central and western Huanghuai, the majority of Jianghuai, the majority of Jianghan, the central and southern Yunnan and the eastern part of Xinjiang was 20 percent~50 percent less than historical average; the precipitation in most other parts of the country was close to the historical average.

Sea level The sea level in China’s coastal areas has been going upward with fluctuations. In 2019, China’s coastal sea level was 72 mm higher than the historical average, marking the third highest since 1980. The sea level in the past 10 years had been at a high level in the past four decades. From 1980 to 2019, the sea level rising rate in China’s coastal areas stood at 3.4 mm/year. Carbon intensity Based on preliminary calculations, the CO2 emissions per unit GDP in 2019 has decreased by 4.1 percent compared with that of 2018, completing the set annual target. Greenhouse gas In 2018* , the average concentrations of CO2, CH4 and N2O in Qinghai Waliguan Station were 409.4±0.3 ppm, 1,923±2 ppb and 331.4±0.1 ppb respectively. The annual average absolute increments over the past 10 years were 2.32 ppm, 7.7 ppb, and 0.94 ppb respectively.

*Up to the time this Report was published, the monitoring results of the greenhouse gas in 2018 were the latest data.

Natural disaster

Meteorological disaster In 2019, China in general suffered lighter meteorological disasters than historical average.

In 2019, heavy rains and flood disasters were generally lighter than the historical average. A total of 43 heavy rains occurred throughout the country, four more than the historical average (39 times), and there was no large-scale heavy rain and flood disaster in any of the river basins.

In 2019, drought across the country was lighter than that of historical average, but regional and periodic droughts were evident. North China, Huanghuai and Jianghuai suffered periodic droughts in spring, Yunnan was hit by continuous droughts from spring to summer, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River stricken by serious and continuous droughts from mid-summer to autumn.

There were several typhoons in 2019, but the landing typhoon was generally weak. Only the Typhoon “Lekima” caused heavy losses. There were 29 typhoons in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, 3.5 more than the historical average. Among them, five landed in China, 2.2 less than historical average. Typhoon “Lekima” was the strongest typhoon landed in China in 2019.

There were less strong convective weather in 2019 and therefore caused less losses. A total of 37 severe convective weather had occurred throughout the country, less than the average of the past five years. The strong convective weather mainly occurred during April to August, accounting for more than 80 percent of the total number of the year.

In 2019, there were more days recorded with high temperature, with strong regional characteristics. There were 10.0 days with national average high temperature (daily maximum temperature ≥ 35°C), 3.1 days more than the same period of the historical average. The number of days with high temperature in Huanghuai, Jianghuai, Jianghan, regions south of the Yangtze River, South China, eastern Southwest China, Xinjiang and other places stood between 15 to 30, part of which even exceeding 30.

In 2019, the low temperature damages and snow disasters were lighter than the historical average. At the beginning of 2019, there were frequent snowfalls in Yushu Prefecture and Guoluo Prefecture of Qinghai province. Yushu Prefecture experienced 12 heavy snowfalls in a row. Both the volume of snowfall and the number of heavy snowfall days reached the highest compared to the same period in history. In mid February, North China experienced the largest snowfall in winter, and nearly 1/7 of the country’s land area experienced snowfall.

In the spring of 2019, there was a few sand and dust weather in northern China with relatively lighter impact. There was a total of 10 occurrence of sand and dust weather in northern China, seven less than that of the same period of previous years (17 times). The average number of dusty days in northern China was 3.2 days, 1.8 days less than the same period of previous years. The first sand and dust weather in 2019 took place on March 19th, 31 days later than the 2000- 2018 average (February 16th) and 39 days later than 2018 (February 8th).

Earthquake disaster In 2019, there were 32 earthquakes at or above 5.0 Richter Scale (20 happened in Mainland China, and 12 happened in Taiwan and in the Straits). The strongest earthquake at 6.7 Richter Scale occurred on April 18th in the sea areas close to Hualien County of Taiwan province. 13 earthquake disasters happened in Mainland China, mainly in Sichuan, Jilin, Hubei, Guangxi, Gansu, Tibet and Guizhou provinces.

Geological disaster In 2019, 6,181 geological disasters had happened across the country, among which 25 were superlarge geological disasters, 37 large ones, 262 mid-sized ones and 5,857 small ones.

Marine disaster In 2019, marine disasters were dominated by storm surges, waves and red tides. Altogether 11 storm surges occurred in 2019, 5 of which led to disasters; 39 disastrous waves took place with an effective wave height of 4.0 meters or higher; and 38 red tides occurred in total.

Forest disaster In 2019, a total of 12.3677 million hectares of forests were affected by forestry pests, up by 1.93 percent compared with that of 2018, among which 8.1146 million hectares forests were affected by insect pest hazards, down by 2.73 percent compared with that of 2018; 2.2954 million hectares forests were affected by forest disease, up by 29.74 percent; 1.7803 million hectares forests were affected by forest rat and rabbit hazards, down by 3.02 percent; 177,400 hectares forest were affected by hazardous plants, leveling off that of 2018. In 2019, a total of 2,345 cases of forest fire took place across the country, and there were eight big forest fires and one especially big forest fire, damaging the forest area of 13,505 hectares.

Grassland disaster A total of 47.87 million hectares of grassland across the country had been affected by grassland rat and insect pest hazards. In specific, a total of 37.49 million hectares of grassland across the country had been affected by grassland rat hazards, and 10.38 million hectares had been affected by grassland insect pest hazards. In 2019, 45 cases of grassland fires took place across the country, and there were one big forest fire and two especially big forest fires (all caused by fires originating from the outside of the national borders), damaging 66,705 hectares of grassland. No casualties were caused.