Climate adaptation as the next frontier for China

China has done more than any other country to cut the emissions that cause climate change. Now it's time for the country to move to the next chapter of its climate ambition. While there is a flourishing market for mitigation technologies, the world does not have a similar market for adaptation.

Typhoon Bavi made that case in concrete terms this month. As one of the strongest storms to hit China this year, it made two landfalls in Zhejiang province, tore down trees in Yueqing, flooded farmland, and sent boulders crashing onto mountain roads.

People were evacuated, most from one of China's most economically dynamic provinces. In Shanghai, transport was severely disrupted, with some trains and flights canceled.

China's response was swift and effective. The government activated a national emergency response, deployed task forces across affected provinces, and allocated 100 million yuan ($14.76 million) from the central budget for repairs of roads, water infrastructure, schools and hospitals.

Indeed, China's capacity to manage the aftermath of a disaster is formidable. But the crucial question is whether the country is developing the tools to mitigate the severity of such events in the first place.

On cutting emissions, China's record is extraordinary. By the end of 2025, China's total installed renewable energy capacity had reached 2.34 billion kilowatts, and hit its 2030 target of more than 1.2 billion kilowatts of installed wind and solar capacity six years ahead of schedule.

The country accounts for over 80 percent of global battery production capacity. CATL and BYD together command more than half the global battery market.

This has had a transformative effect on global energy costs. Solar module prices have fallen to levels that seemed implausible a decade ago, largely because of China's manufacturing scale.

Developing countries from Bangladesh to Brazil are able to deploy clean energy technologies that would have been out of reach without China's contribution.

But mitigation is only half the climate equation. The other half is adaptation: the infrastructure, systems, and technologies that enable people and economies to withstand what warming has already made inevitable. This includes flood-resilient construction, early warning systems precise enough to protect lives, climate-smart agriculture and large-scale coastal protection.

On this side of the ledger, the world is underequipped.

China accounts for around 37 percent of global mitigation finance, while adaptation remains significantly underfunded worldwide. Mitigation technologies attract private capital because they generate returns.

Adaptation technologies often produce public goods that are harder to monetize. The scarcity of investment is reflected in the technology pipeline.

The financial impact is visible in China itself. Natural disasters caused 241.6 billion yuan in direct economic losses in 2025.

The case for investment in adaptation requires no external persuasion. The world does not yet have a China-scale manufacturer of flood-resilient infrastructure systems. There is no adaptation equivalent of CATL.

Early warning technologies, climate-hardened building materials, and flood-barrier systems remain fragmented markets, expensive at scale, and largely out of reach for developing countries with the greatest exposure to extreme weather events.

China's success in mitigation offers a blueprint for adaptation. Scale drove down the costs of solar infrastructure, manufacturing concentration accelerated battery innovation, and coordinated five-year planning brought new sectors to maturity faster than fragmented market forces could.

China has already shown what is possible with ambition. The question is whether adaptation technology will be the next sector to adopt this approach.

The foundation is already in place. China's National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035 sets targets for climate resilience across cities, agriculture, ecosystems, and public health.

A national disaster monitoring platform is being built, incorporating predictive models, remote sensing, and drone-based real-time assessment.

These provide a solid base for the industry. What is now needed is investment that matches the ambition, and builds on what China has already achieved.

Typhoon Bavi was just one storm. Scientists have warned that El Nino conditions this year may drive more intense typhoon seasons, shifting tracks westward toward China's coast and compressing the time available to prepare.

China changed the economics of clean energy by treating it as a strategic industrial priority. The case for doing the same with adaptation is at least as strong.

The world was able to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy faster because of China's efforts. It could close the adaptation gap just as quickly for the same reason.

The author is a sociologist who works as a climate finance specialist at the Climate Resourcing Coordination Center in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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