Tiempo Climate Newswatch

China has released its first official estimates of national greenhouse gas emissions. With total national emissions of 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the early 1990s, and despite reported efficiency gains later in the decade, China is the second biggest greenhouse polluter behind the United States. Taking emissions per head of population, though, China ranks much lower. "It's still relatively low per capita, but the volume is increasing rapidly," said Khalid Malik, United Nations resident coordinator in Beijing. China intends to quadruple its economic output by 2020, with inevitable rises in energy consumption. There are fears that China's national emissions may exceed those of the United States by that year.

The Chinese government is under increasing pressure to limit this growth in emissions. The government is "not ambitious enough. It can do better," says Lo Sze Ping of Greenpeace China. "China does not want its emissions volume to be higher than the United States," responds Gao Guangsheng of the National Development and Reform Commission, "but you have to look at our population. The economy must develop. China has 1.3 billion people and we have to live." The new report is a requirement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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• Terra Daily
• Terra Daily
• BBC

Large areas of China are undergoing the most serious drought in half a century, according to recent reports. Worst affected are the southern and eastern provinces. In Jiangxi Province, water supplies for over half a million people are threatened. In Guangdong Province, two million people are affected. Water levels in the major tributaries of the Pearl River are at their lowest for 50 years.

The Guangdong Provincial Committee has urged local government departments and officials to ensure water supplies for people and animals. According to Ou Guangyuan of the Provincial Committee, "anti-drought efforts have become an important and long-term task." Guangdong Province has lost 1.4 billion yuan (US$170 million) from agriculture this year. More than half a million hectares of farmland have been affected and 41,000 hectares have had no harvest as a result of the drought.

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• China Internet Information Center
• Xinhua

• Terra Daily
• China Internet Information Center

The leaders of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic have called for action to slow climate change and for assistance in coping with climate impacts. They were responding to the recent Arctic Climate Impact Assessment study. "We realize that we will be forced to make some adaptations, as we are already seeing the effects of climate change in our communities. We need to be given the resources to deal with these challenges," said Geir Tommy Pedersen of the Saami Council.

An information campaign is underway. "We need to tell our own people about what is in this report," said Rodion Sulyandziga of the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North. "They are already facing many challenges, but we must prepare them for this challenge also. More than this, we need to tell the rest of the world about the necessity of taking action on climate change, and taking it now." The report's projections suggest the Arctic could become near ice-free in summer by the year 2100, creating substantial problems for the people who hunt in the area. The study suggests that climate change may challenge the survival of some cultures.

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• BBC
• Science Daily
• Terra Daily

• MSNBC News
• ACIA Symposium
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