Climate Risk and Resilience in China

China has been subject to floods, droughts and heat waves for millennia; these hazards are not new. What is new is how rapidly climate risks are changing for different groups of people and sectors. This is due to the unprecedented rates of socio-economic development, migration, land-use change, pollution and urbanisation, all occurring alongside increasingly more intense and frequent weather hazards and shifting seasons. China’s leadership is facing a significant challenge – from conducting and integrating biophysical and social vulnerability and risk assessments and connecting the information from these to policy priorities and time frames, to developing and implementing policies and actions at a variety of scales. It is within this challenging context that China’s policy makers, businesses and citizens must manage climate risk and build resilience.

This book provides a detailed study of how China has been working to understand and respond to climatic risk, such as droughts and desertification in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia to deadly typhoons in the mega-cities of the Pearl River Delta. Using research and data from a wide range of Chinese sources and the Adapting to Climate Change in China (ACCC) project, a research-to-policy project, this book provides a fascinating glimpse into how China is developing policies and approaches to manage the risks and opportunities presented by climate change.

This book will be of interest to those studying global and Chinese climate change policy, regional food, water and climate risk, and to policy advisors.

Rebecca Nadin is Regional Director of INTASAVE Asia-Pacific, and Director of the
Adapting to Climate Change in China Project Phase II (ACCC II). She is also an adjunct
lecturer at the Centre for Environment and Population Health, Griffith University, Australia.
She previously was director of ACCC Phase I. She also worked as the Deputy Director of the British Council’s Global Climate Change Programme and Director of the China Climate Change Programme.

Sarah Opitz-Stapleton is a Senior Scientist with INTASAVE Asia-Pacific, and Chief
Scientist to the Adapting to Climate Change in China Project Phase II (ACCC II). She
was previously a technical adviser to ACCC I. She is also a Senior Associate Scientist
with the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition International (ISET-Int) and
an independent research scientist with Staplets Consulting.

Xu Yinlong is Professor of the Climate Change Lab, Institute of Environment and Sustainable
Development in Agriculture (IEDA), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
(CAAS). He was the Chief Scientist of China’s Tenth Five Year (2001–2005) and Eleventh
Five Year (2006–2010) National Key Technologies R&D Program Project on
Climate Change VIA Assessments.