His paddle board under his arm, Wei runs along the Liangmahe Canal, northeast of Beijing. The questionable waters of this stream that crosses the embassy district have turned into a swimming area. “With this heat, we only want to cool off in the water,” laughs the young man, who walks around in a bathing suit in the middle of town. A few signs indicate that swimming is prohibited, but the vigilantes dozing in the shade of the willows have long since given up the hunt for violators.
Difficult to crack down, as the furnace is difficult to bear. “Recent high temperatures in northern China have broken all records,” said Zhang Fanghua, head of the National Meteorological Center. In Beijing, on June 22, the mercury rose to 41.1 ° C, unheard of since the creation of this body.
This situation is expected to get worse, experts say. “China’s near future will be warmer and wetter, warns Chao Qingchen, director of the National Climate Center. China’s fragile ecological ecosystem as well as its regional geography make it vulnerable to climate change, which will translate this year by longer heat waves, more frequent flooding and higher ocean surface temperatures.” Already, desertification is advancing and natural disasters are increasing.
Unusually, the north of the country, with its dry and continental climate, is warmer this year than the tropical south. This disruption endangers China’s breadbasket in the central and northern provinces. “The Yangtze River Basin has experienced the worst drought since 1961 for two summers, which has affected local grain harvests,” Chao Qingchen said. In June, precipitation in this area decreased by almost half compared to July 2022.
China addicted to coal
The phenomenon has repercussions all over the world. “China is the world’s largest producer of wheat, with 17% of the world total. This year, it lost 15% of its harvest, enough calories to feed the entire planet for five days”, alarms Frank Umbach, researcher at the European Hub for Climate, Energy and Resource Security.
This ecological disaster does not spare the province of Yunnan, in the southwest, which is also experiencing a historic drought. Nearly 1 million people in the region are affected by this phenomenon, as are the Tibetan provinces. Glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at an unprecedented rate and threatening the water supply of nearly 2 billion people, according to a scientific study published in June by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, which specifies that between 2011 and 2020 these glaciers have melted 65% faster than in the previous decade.
A victim of global warming, China is one of the main culprits. Her bulimia for energy has led her in recent years to recommission hundreds of polluting coal-fired power stations. The Asian giant burns more than 4 billion tonnes of coal per year, or 58% of global consumption in 2022, and is the main importer of liquefied natural gas and oil. With 1.4 billion inhabitants, or nearly 1 in 5 Earthlings, it represents 28% of CO2 emissions in 2022, according to the UN. Paradoxically, China is also, with 511 billion dollars in 2022, the largest investor on the planet in clean energies (solar and wind). The country has thus installed 100 GW of new photovoltaic electricity production capacity.
Despite the negative signals, China still promises to reach its CO2 emission peak around 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060. “For this, it will not only have to continue to invest in renewable energies, but also to review certain lifestyle habits, says Wang Bing, climatologist at Tsinghua University (Beijing) The excessive use of air conditioning, the problems of insulation of housing and the waste of water must change, and China change its mix energy by abandoning coal.” A change in behavior that will benefit the whole planet.