China staring at deadly floods, heatwaves and pestilence as climate change hits home, study finds
- Climate
change, the deadly impact of which is rising across China, poses bigger
global public health threat than Covid-19, warns The Lancet Public
Health report
- A
holistic, ambitious approach from world’s No 1 polluter could help
prevent millions of deaths and economic loss from extreme weather, say
authors
8 Nov, 2021
From more intense floods in central China to rising threats from heatwaves and disease-carrying mosquitoes in the south – the impact of climate change on health is increasing across China, a sweeping new report has found.
An
estimated 14,500 deaths across China in 2020 could be attributed to
heatwaves, almost doubling a historical average from 1986 to 2005, while
an estimated 1.4 per cent was knocked off China’s gross domestic
product in 2020 alone as soaring temperatures cut working hours.
Exposure to wildfires in recent years has increased, as compared with two decades ago, and extreme precipitation – like the rains that caused deadly floods in Henan province earlier this year – has the potential to reverse China’s gains in flood emergency response capacity.
Chinese farmers in Henan still dealing with aftermath of country’s worst floods in decades
Those are among the findings of a stark report from dozens of experts across 25 institutions in China and around the world. The report, published on Sunday in The Lancet Public Health journal, is part of a global initiative known as the Lancet Countdown, which looks at the relationship between health and climate change.
“The health impacts of climate change continue to worsen in every province in China and there is mixed progress in the adaptation and mitigation responses,” wrote the authors, who were led by Tsinghua University’s department of Earth system science.
“After the painful lessons from Covid-19, this important opportunity to protect the health of people in China, both now and in the future, cannot be missed.”
The findings of the China report were released on the heels of a Lancet Countdown global report published late last month, which found “a world overwhelmed by an ongoing global health crisis, which has made little progress to protect its population from the simultaneously aggravated health impacts of climate change”.
But as Beijing makes these pledges, crafts a domestic plan for climate change adaptation and looks to shore up its health emergency capacities following the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, it must make sure it thinks holistically about the health impacts of environmental change, according to report’s authors.
“The risk of decisions made in isolation is that China might not fully realise the health and economic benefits of addressing the pandemic alongside tackling climate change, which is likely to be a larger global public health threat than Covid-19 in the long run,” they wrote.
Biden 'disappointed’ with China, Russia over failing to commit to G20 climate change plans
While each region in China faces unique health and climate threats, the most worrying trends were a rise in heat-related deaths, labour loss, and risk of dengue fever in Guangdong; risk of flood and drought in Sichuan province, and wildfire exposures in Liaoning and Jilin provinces, said the authors, who examined available national and provincial data in recent years and decades, focusing largely on tracking trends over the past 20 years.
“We need to control the burden of disease in China, we need to pay attention to climate change and its impact on public health,” Tsinghua economic professor and The Lancet Countdown Regional Centre for Asia director Cai Wenjia said at the report launch on Monday in Beijing.
Cai also pointed to the need for global efforts to control rising temperatures.
Six provinces of the 30 that responded to the group’s questionnaire reported that they had devised health and climate change adaptation plans, and another six were developing such plans, according to Cai.
“Even with a Paris Agreement compliant pathway, additional, and more ambitious, health-focused climate action plans in China could prevent millions of deaths from reducing air pollution, improving diet and increasing physical activity,” the authors said.
Exposure to wildfires in recent years has increased, as compared with two decades ago, and extreme precipitation – like the rains that caused deadly floods in Henan province earlier this year – has the potential to reverse China’s gains in flood emergency response capacity.
Chinese farmers in Henan still dealing with aftermath of country’s worst floods in decades
Those are among the findings of a stark report from dozens of experts across 25 institutions in China and around the world. The report, published on Sunday in The Lancet Public Health journal, is part of a global initiative known as the Lancet Countdown, which looks at the relationship between health and climate change.
“The health impacts of climate change continue to worsen in every province in China and there is mixed progress in the adaptation and mitigation responses,” wrote the authors, who were led by Tsinghua University’s department of Earth system science.
“After the painful lessons from Covid-19, this important opportunity to protect the health of people in China, both now and in the future, cannot be missed.”
The findings of the China report were released on the heels of a Lancet Countdown global report published late last month, which found “a world overwhelmed by an ongoing global health crisis, which has made little progress to protect its population from the simultaneously aggravated health impacts of climate change”.
That report, and related projects
from regional partners including China, come as world leaders have
turned their attention to the climate crisis, meeting in Glasgow for two
weeks for the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26),
which seeks to bolster coordination in slowing rising temperatures and
combating climate change.
A spotlight falls on China’s role in those next steps, as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and most populous country. In recent weeks, China’s government has released a road map for how it plans to reach previously stated goals of peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
A spotlight falls on China’s role in those next steps, as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and most populous country. In recent weeks, China’s government has released a road map for how it plans to reach previously stated goals of peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
But as Beijing makes these pledges, crafts a domestic plan for climate change adaptation and looks to shore up its health emergency capacities following the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, it must make sure it thinks holistically about the health impacts of environmental change, according to report’s authors.
“The risk of decisions made in isolation is that China might not fully realise the health and economic benefits of addressing the pandemic alongside tackling climate change, which is likely to be a larger global public health threat than Covid-19 in the long run,” they wrote.
Biden 'disappointed’ with China, Russia over failing to commit to G20 climate change plans
While each region in China faces unique health and climate threats, the most worrying trends were a rise in heat-related deaths, labour loss, and risk of dengue fever in Guangdong; risk of flood and drought in Sichuan province, and wildfire exposures in Liaoning and Jilin provinces, said the authors, who examined available national and provincial data in recent years and decades, focusing largely on tracking trends over the past 20 years.
“We need to control the burden of disease in China, we need to pay attention to climate change and its impact on public health,” Tsinghua economic professor and The Lancet Countdown Regional Centre for Asia director Cai Wenjia said at the report launch on Monday in Beijing.
Cai also pointed to the need for global efforts to control rising temperatures.
“If
we do not make interventions, the extreme weather conditions … will
increase, [also] resulting in increasing economic loss,” she said.
Six provinces of the 30 that responded to the group’s questionnaire reported that they had devised health and climate change adaptation plans, and another six were developing such plans, according to Cai.
Only four reported that they had completed an assessment of the health impacts of climate change.
There
were bright spots on China’s record, according to the report. When it
came to air pollution, premature deaths due to exposure to ambient
particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5) had continued to
decline.
However, 98 per cent of China’s cities still had annual
average PM2.5 concentrations that are more than the World Health
Organization guidelines.
Urban green space had also increased in 18 of 31 provinces in the past decades, according to the authors, who described it as an important measure for coping with rising global temperatures.
Urban green space had also increased in 18 of 31 provinces in the past decades, according to the authors, who described it as an important measure for coping with rising global temperatures.
But overall, more could be done when it came to
encouraging green investments and reducing fossil fuel use, as well as
preparing health systems, according to the report.
“Even with a Paris Agreement compliant pathway, additional, and more ambitious, health-focused climate action plans in China could prevent millions of deaths from reducing air pollution, improving diet and increasing physical activity,” the authors said.