Soaring temperatures wreak havoc on power, crops and livestock

SHANGHAI • Extreme heat in China played havoc with crops and power supplies yesterday despite lower temperatures in some regions, with the authorities across the Yangtze river basin scrambling to limit the damage from climate change to crops and livestock.

An extreme summer has taken a toll on the Yangtze river, Asia's longest, which flows about 6,300km through China and feeds farms that provide much of the country's food and massive hydroelectric stations, including the Three Gorges Dam - the world's biggest power plant.

The south-western region of Chongqing has been hit especially hard by weeks of hot, dry weather.

One resident, Mr Zhang Ronghai, told Reuters that both his water and his power had been cut after a four-day mountain fire in the district of Jiangjin. "People need to go to a power centre over 10km away to charge their phones," he said.

Chongqing's agriculture bureau drew up emergency measures to protect livestock at more than 5,000 large-scale pig farms, which have faced "severe challenges" as a result of the heat, state media said.

Damage to crops and water scarcity could "spread to other food-related sectors, resulting in a substantial price increase or a food crisis in the most severe case", said Mr Lin Zhong, a professor at City University of Hong Kong who has studied the impact of climate change on agriculture in China.

China's National Meteorological Centre downgraded its national heat warning to "orange" yesterday after 12 consecutive days of "red alerts", but temperatures are still expected to exceed 40 deg C in Chongqing, Sichuan and other parts of the Yangtze basin.

China has warned it is especially vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters are expected to proliferate in coming years as a result of more volatile weather.

As the drought drags on, the state media has been turning its attention to the impact of climate change in other countries.

"Climate change is once again a wake-up call for the world," said the official newspaper of China's corruption watchdog on Tuesday.

China, the world's largest source of climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, is committed to bringing carbon dioxide to a peak before 2030 and to become "carbon neutral" by 2060, and it is also racing ahead in renewable energy development.

But the drought has eroded hydropower generation and coal-fired power is again on the rise.

Prospects for international cooperation to tackle the problem dimmed following the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan this month.

In response, an angry China cancelled climate talks with the United States, ending an important channel that has helped drive greener policies.

China has said the climate cannot be separated from wider diplomatic issues.

REUTERS