"The speed is astonishing," said Lu Xuedu, the deputy director of the environmental division of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

"Coastal cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou will confront unimaginable challenges if the situation deteriorates," he told the paper.

The sea level had risen by an average of 2.5 millimeters (one tenth of an inch) annually in recent years, the paper said, citing the oceanic administration's report.

It predicted that over the next decade, the sea would to rise by up to 31 millimeters, threatening low-lying cities, according to the paper.

"They'll begin building dykes like the Dutch, to stop the cities from being flooded," said Yang Ailun, an expert on climate change with Greenpeace China.

"But building dykes will be an action taken too late, and we first need to start cutting greenhouse gas emissions," she said.

China is preparing a campaign to alert local officials to global warming, in an apparent attempt to address the root causes, the paper said.

The plan calls for the reduction of greenhouse gases and development of climate-friendly technologies, and could be submitted to the cabinet by the end of the month.

It is likely to exert only minor pressure on local officials, as it will not set specific targets and will be "more of a guideline," said Lu.

Observers have argued that it is particularly important to address officials at the grassroots level. This is because they are evaluated according to their ability to generate growth, meaning there is little incentive to curb pollution.

The effort comes after the UN International Panel on Climate Change earlier this month issued a hard-hitting report saying the Earth's surface temperatures would rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees C (3.2 and 7.2 degrees F) this century.

The report predicted sea-levels could rise by up to 59 centimeters (23 inches).

A China meteorological bureau study has said such an increase could endanger large swathes of the country's coastline, where 70 percent of its large cities, over half the population lie, and which accounts for nearly 60 percent of the national economy.

China may now be the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States. But the government points out that the per capita emissions of the nation's 1.3 billion people pale in comparison with per capita emissions from developed countries.

"China's government has a point in their view of global warming," said Yang of Greenpeace.

"But still there is a gap of understanding between the efforts of the government and what we should really be doing to cut greenhouse gases."

earlier related report
Soaring temperatures, severe rain tipped for China this century
Beijing (AFP) Feb 19 - Chinese meteorologists expect temperatures to rise faster in China this century than the rest of the world, and predict increasingly severe rainfalls will lash the country, state media said Monday.

By 2020, China's average annual temperatures could rise by 1.3 to 2.1 degrees Celsius (2.3 to 3.78 Fahrenheit) over 1961-1990 averages and increase by a startling 3.9 to 6.0 degrees by 2100, Xinhua news agency said, quoting a report by the China Meteorological Administration.

The forecast compares to the UN International Panel on Climate Change's landmark report earlier this month, which said Earth's surface temperatures would rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees this century.

In the past 50 years China's surface temperature rose an average 0.22 degrees every 10 years, outpacing increases in global and northern hemisphere temperatures, Xinhua quoted the report as saying.

The report also predicted average annual precipitation in China would increase two to three percent by 2020, five to seven percent by 2050, and 11-17 percent by 2100.

The chances of extremely strong rainfall in eastern China would increase four to six times over that of the 1980s and 1990s in the next five years, with stronger and more frequent typhoons in coastal areas, the report said.

China, which is expected to surpass the United States as the world's largest producer of climate-changing gases by 2100, has issued increasingly dire recent warnings of the future effects of global warming on China.

Chinese government scientists have said a range of extreme weather events in 2006, including some of the worst typhoons and droughts in decades, plus an unusually warm winter this year were likely due to global warming.

Chinese sea levels will rise 12-50 centimetres by 2050, and this century the country would see more extreme weather events, increased drought and desertification, and a marked shrinkage of glaciers on the Tibet Plateau, Xinhua quoted the report as saying.

Email This Article

Related Links
Learn about Climate Science at TerraDaily.com
China News From SinoDaily.com