BEIJING —
China has logged its hottest August since records began, state media reported
Tuesday, following an unusually intense summer heat wave that parched rivers,
scorched crops and triggered isolated blackouts.
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Southern China last month sweltered under what
experts said may have been one of the worst heat waves in global history, with
parts of Sichuan province and the megacity of Chongqing clocking a string of
days well over 40°C.
The average temperature nationwide was 22.4°C in
August, exceeding the norm by 1.2°C, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing
the country’s weather service.
Some 267 weather stations across the country matched
or broke temperature records last month, the report said.
It was also China’s third-driest August on record,
with average rainfall 23.1 percent lower than average.
“The average number of high-temperature days was
abnormally high, and regional high-temperature processes are continuing to
impact our country,” CCTV reported the weather service as saying.
Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves,
droughts, and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to
human-induced climate change.
Last month, temperatures as high as 45°C prompted
multiple Chinese provinces to impose power cuts as cities battled to cope with
a surge in electricity demand partly driven by people cranking up the air
conditioning.
Images from
Chongqing showed a tributary of the
mighty Yangtze River had almost run dry, a scene echoed further east where the
waters of China’s largest freshwater lake also receded extensively.
‘Severe threat’
Chongqing and the eastern
megacity of
Shanghai switched off outdoor decorative lighting to mitigate the
power crunch, while authorities in Sichuan imposed industrial power cuts as
water levels dwindled at major hydroelectric plants.
As local authorities warned that the drought posed a
“severe threat” to this year’s harvest, the central government approved
billions of yuan in subsidies to support rice farmers.
“This is a warning for us, reminding us to have a
deeper understanding of climate change and improve our ability to adapt to it
in all respects,” said Zhang Daquan, a senior official at China’s National
Climate Centre, in comments carried Monday by the state-run People’s Daily
newspaper.
“It is also necessary to raise awareness across all
of society to adapt to climate change ... and strive to minimize social and
economic impacts and losses,” Zhang said.
Higher-than-usual temperatures are also expected
across China throughout September, CCTV cited the weather service’s deputy
director Xiao Chan as saying.
Li Shuo, senior global policy adviser at Greenpeace
East Asia, told AFP that while it was difficult to attribute individual weather
events to climate change, “scientifically a long-term warming trend and
long-term extreme weather impacts can definitely be said to have direct
connection with climate change”.
Li said he thought the extreme weather experienced
by China this summer, especially in the southwest of the country, was “once
again sounding an alarm for China”.
Coal boost
Scientists have said a rapid
reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions is needed to avert potentially
disastrous global heating and its associated climate impacts.
China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter,
has pledged to bring its carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and cut them to
zero by 2060.
But the record-busting summer heat and drought,
combined with a power crunch last year, have pushed authorities to pivot back
towards carbon-rich coal use in what they have portrayed as a bump on the road
towards a more sustainable future.
Beijing said earlier this year it would raise coal
mining capacity by 300 million tonnes and has stepped up approvals of coal
plants and related infrastructure.
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