How should China respond to melting glaciers and rising sea levels?

by Feng Hao

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China’s glaciers are crucial “water towers” both for its own people and the nations downstream so climate change will have a huge impact in the region. Given these challenges, experts say that despite international disagreements, a combination of global mitigation and regional adaptation is needed.

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Liu Qiao, an associate researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, says that while melting will increase river flows in the short term, a peak melting point will be reached as the glaciers shrink. Glacial water resources in some arid regions will shrink – in particular, in China’s north-west.

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Given these severe climate risks, some say it is time to concentrate on adaptation. Shen Yongping of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Northwest Institute of Eco-environment and Resources is among them. He says China’s funding and research is focused on mitigation – but adaptation is more pressing. “The need for adaptation is more real and more urgent than mitigation by reducing emissions. And our adaptation efforts could act as models to be followed elsewhere.”

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Another of the report authors is Kang Shichang, director of the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science. He thinks mitigation is the top priority, as reducing emissions of pollutants, particularly of short-lived climate forcers such as black carbon, both mitigates climate change and improves health. “Of course, we need to build on that to prepare for the future, and infrastructure should be built in line with availability of water resources.”