Atmospheric change

Meteorologists are increasing efforts to build a nationwide system to monitor greenhouse gas (GHG) and provide early warning of adverse climate conditions following a commission by the central government.

The monitoring and early warning network will be based on existing regional systems, Zheng Huoguang, head of China Meteorological Administration (CMA), said at a recent video conference.

Aided by satellites, the system will have the capability for long-term observation and analysis of GHG, aerosol and other gases related to climate change.

The network will be linked to record changes in regional density of GHGs, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and to strengthen the watch of global GHGs, the CMA official says.

Sources from CMA say it has 16 remote sensing stations in full operation to aid analysis of weather conditions ranging from dust storms, typhoons, blue-green algae pollution of interior water resources, growing temperatures and vegetation.

Forecasts and reports from the monitoring and early warning system should be effective in helping decision-makers to learn about climate changes and uncertainties, Zheng says.

Chinese environmental experts say the CMA plan for a GHG monitoring system signals both a major financial and a research campaign to deal with climate change following Beijing's release in June of the National Climate Change Program, the nation's first global warming policy initiative.

Earlier this year, Zhang Xiaoye, a project director with the China Academy of Meteorological Science, was quoted in the Chinese language press saying that forecasts of atmospheric pollution in some key cities are already made through a joint effort by the CMA and State Environmental Protection Agency.

But the effort at networked long-term forecasting of climate conditions and their impacts is still inadequate, Zhang says.

China is among the countries that suffer serious impacts from climate change. Extreme weather conditions, severe droughts and floods have been reported throughout the summer, coming along with unusual atmospheric circulation caused by global warming, said Song Lianchun, CMA spokesman, at a recent news conference.

Along the Huaihe River, for example, some 460 mm of rain fell in July, resulting in the worst flooding in the area since 1954. Lives of more than 30 million riverside residents were affected.

Similarly, authorities in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province, recorded 151 mm of rain in one hour on July 18, the most since 1958.

Also in July, lightning strikes claimed 141 lives across the nation in a single month, an historic record, according to CMA data.

Song did not reveal the level of funding from central government coffers to provide the framework of the would-be climate watch system.

Zheng, the CMA head, tells his colleagues of instructions from Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on the indispensable role of meteorologists in the nation's sustainable development.

Separate funding has also been allocated for climate projects led by other government bodies. The Ministry of Science and Technology recently announced a nearly 5 billion yuan research project on climate change.

In the Ministry of Science and Technology, program funds will be used for basic research on climate change, followed by research into technologies that can reduce GHG emissions by using new energy and or by saving energy.

How to tackle current impacts from climate change and related national economic strategy and policy-making are also part of the plan.

China's National Climate Change Program sets three major goals to be met by 2010: reducing energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent, raising the proportion of renewable energy in primary energy supplies to 10 percent and increasing forest coverage by 20 percent.

(China Daily 08/20/2007 page3)