Chinese cities 'not ready for climate disasters'

BEIJING • Climate change is making China's annual summer floods worse, and cities housing millions of people are not prepared to handle the damage.

Record-breaking rainfall in the central province of Henan killed more than 300 people last month, while rain continues to swamp cities in several other areas. Two people died last week in Beijing after they were trapped in a car that was submerged under a bridge.

The tragedies are making it clear to policymakers and citizens that Chinese cities, even the capital, are far from ready for the extreme weather events wrought by global warming. It is not just the threat of floods. Greenpeace research has shown that China's key metropolises are at risk of longer and hotter summers in the coming decades.

Year after year, officials have vowed to better prepare the country to deal with such disasters. So far that response, at least when it comes to heavy rain, has focused on building infrastructure such as dams, dikes and subsurface drainage systems. Those investments have played an important role in bringing the death toll down from historical records, but have proved woefully inadequate in the face of increasingly dangerous weather.

"These projects are meant to help the country face general floods, not extreme events like the one that hit Henan this year," said Greenpeace East Asia's climate campaigner Liu Junyan. "Most infrastructure was made to protect cities from floods that are the worst in 10 or 20 years, but it's unrealistic to upgrade all infrastructure to be able to face a flood that's the worst in hundreds of years."

China is not alone. Cities all over the world are grappling with how to adapt to the changing climate as they battle everything from drought in California to heatwaves in France and Spain.

Even in remote areas, climate change is posing increasing risks.

Rapid climate change in China's Qinghai-Tibet plateau could destabilise water supplies and cause more frequent disasters, even though warmer temperatures have improved conditions in the short term, scientists said after an expedition to the region.

The region, which covers much of China's remote north-west and includes the Himalayas, has been identified as one of the country's "ecological security barriers" and is a vital "water tower" regulating flows to eastern, central and southern Asia.

A recent report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the plateau region was facing rising flood hazards and more frequent extreme heat and rain. Government researchers found that temperature and rainfall increases had made the region greener, more fertile and more "beautiful", expanding lakes and rivers and improving the habitats of gazelles, antelopes and donkeys.

"But in fact, a high price will be paid for this 'beauty', with significant warming and humidification exacerbating the occurrence of extreme weather and climate events," the China Meteorological Administration said in a summary of the expedition's findings published yesterday.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS