![]() What is China doing to reduce its emissions? Extreme heat events and droughts will also become more common. As temperatures rise, China’s glaciers will continue to melt at an alarming rate, which will likely lead to more devastating floods. Every year, natural disasters kill hundreds of Chinese people and destroy millions of acres of crops. An estimated forty-three million people in China live on land that could be underwater by the end of the century if the global average temperature rises by 2☌.Īdditionally, experts predict that China will experience more frequent extreme weather events, such as heavy rainfall. Some of China’s coastal cities, such as Shanghai, could be submerged if the global average temperature continues to rise. China’s average temperature and sea levels have risen faster than the global average, according to a 2020 report from China’s National Climate Center. Like the rest of the world, China will increasingly suffer over the next few decades from the effects of climate change, which include sea-level rise, stronger storms, and more intense heat waves. How is climate change expected to affect China? Another contributor is the increase in cars on the road: In 2018, people in China owned 240 million vehicles, up from about 27 million in 2004. Urbanization increases energy demands to power new manufacturing and industrial centers, and construction of these centers relies on high energy–consuming products such as cement and steel. In 2020, China built over three times more new coal-power capacity than the rest of the world combined, according to Global Energy Monitor and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.Ĭhina’s staggering pace of urbanization has also contributed. However, when the ban expired in 2018, construction of new plants ramped up again. The government banned the construction of new coal-fired power plants in 2016, and coal use appeared to decline. The country is the world’s largest coal producer and accounts for about half of coal consumed globally. (Emissions per capita in the United States are still more than double those in China.)Ĭoal, which makes up nearly two-thirds of China’s energy consumption, is largely to blame. It surpassed the United States as the top emitter in 2005, according to Climate Watch. In the past ten years, China has emitted more greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, per year than any other country in the world. How high are China’s greenhouse gas emissions?Ĭhina’s economic rise-national gross domestic product (GDP) grew 10 percent on average each year for more than a decade-has greatly accelerated its emissions. ![]() However, following through won’t be easy, experts say, as the government struggles to maintain economic growth ease public discontent and overcome tensions with the United States, the second-largest emitter. In response, Beijing has implemented policies to curb emissions and stem further degradation, such as by signing the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate and pledging to be carbon neutral by 2060.
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