The average temperature in China will rise by 1.7 degrees Celsius by 2030 and 2.2 degrees by 2050, according to an environment advisory body.

China has been experiencing evident temperature rise in the past 50 years under global warming, with east and northeast China suffering the largest rise of 0.4 to 0.8 of a degree Celsius every ten years, said the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).

According to this international advisory council on environment and development to the Chinese government, there has been a decrease in precipitation, with reduced runoff in most Chinese rivers.

Dong Guangrong, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said glaciers covering the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, which accounted for 47 percent of China's total glacier coverage, were shrinking at an annual rate of seven percent.

Although melting would increase river flow in a short period of time, downstream rivers would gradually dry up once glaciers disappear, leading to more droughts, desertification and sandstorms.

Global warming will worsen water shortages in northeast and northwest China, the council warned.

This summer, hot weather and a severe drought in southwest China left more than 18 million people short of drinking water, while hundreds died in typhoons and floods along the coast, with millions of hectares of cropland damaged.

Meteorological disasters take about three to six percent off China's gross domestic product every year, according to Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological Administration.

The CCICED predicts China will suffer direct losses of 100 billion to 300 billion yuan (12 billion to 36 billion U.S. dollars) in the next 10 to 20 years.

Scientific studies show that most of the earth's warming over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities, which have increased amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases that cause warming.

If China could effectively control greenhouse gases emissions, precipitation was likely to increase in its major river valleys over the next 60 years, said Dong Wenjie, director general of the National Climate Center with the China Meteorological Administration.

China, with a relatively high emission volume of carbon dioxide per unit of gross domestic product, has written "effective control of greenhouse gases" into its 11th Five-Year Program (2006-2010).

In 2002, China's carbon dioxide emission totaled 4.08 billion tons, ranking second in the world after the United States.