(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-07 21:33

The Chinese government and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly launched a program in Beijing on Monday to help the country to fight human health risks from climate change.

Funded by the Spanish government, the program would support China-based United Nations organizations to conduct work in the country on climate change mitigation and adaptation, said Zhao Yuezhao, an official with the monitoring bureau of China's Ministry of health.

"It aims to enhance our ability to adapt or even avoid future crises," he said.

The three-year initiative aims to place climate change mitigation and adaptation into the mainstream of national and provincial policies and planning frameworks, conduct pilot programs in some areas, and establish monitoring and health risk assessment related to climate change, according to Zhao.

Deputy Health Minister Ma Xiaowei said Monday that "as a responsible developing country, China has taken workable measures to alleviate the harmful impact of climate change and worked out general strategies to solve related problems."

In 2007, China published its first ever National Climate Change Program.

According to the program, which was presented as the "basic law" guiding China's endeavor to cope with climate change, the country would reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent, or four percent annually, before 2010 and slow down the increase of carbon dioxide emission.

April 7 is World Health Day, which marks the founding of the WHO and is an opportunity to draw worldwide attention to a subject of major importance to global health this each year.

World Health Day this year focuses on the need to protect health from the adverse effects of climate change.