A new Chinese Government report raises the alarm over rising sea levels caused by climate change which could potentially threaten the country’s developed eastern coast, according to state media and the New York Times.
The release of the official report, now in its third edition, came shortly before the UN Conference of Parties (COP21) summit, which began on Monday with the aim of striking a global deal limiting dangerous climate change.
China is the world’s second biggest economy but also its largest polluter, estimated to have released between nine and 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2013. Beijing pledged last year to peak carbon dioxide output by ‘around 2030’ — suggesting at least another decade of growing emissions. The Government report said the sea levels off China’s coast have risen 2.9 millimetres annually from 1980 to 2012, according to an article posted on a government-backed website, while glaciers shrank just over 10 per cent since the 1970s.
Temperatures are rising at the rate of 1.5 degrees Celsius every 100 years and could jump a further 1.3 to 5.0 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, said the China Climate Change website.