Liu Shaochen: Chinese Government Needs to Pay Enough Attention to Environment Issues

China should take global warming as a realnew science, a science very important to the country, and combine it witheducation and society to be taken into consideration by national policy. 

Reporter: Huang Anli

Reporter: The report you bring this time is “Water Resource Crisis inEastern China and Sustainable Development,” the main content of which is totalk about the influence of climate change on eastern China water resources.You have mentioned in your report climate change, global warming, and meteorologicaldisaster. What is their inner relation?

Liu Shaochen: Academically, climate change includes many aspects, yetwhat I refer to here is mainly global warming. Meteorological disaster willnaturally happen, yet the frequency of disaster is higher and higher because ofglobal warming.

Reporter: Global warming will bring many influences to China, why do youpay specific attention to water resources?

Liu Shaochen: If temperature rises, it will bring a series of problems.Both Chinese government and many scientists think that influence of globalwarming is no more serious than a little rise of temperature and sea level, andthough there are certain negative influences, such influences won’t becomevisible in a short time. I also think that some problems can wait for anotherten or twenty years, yet water resource issue is very serious. We have beeninfluenced by greenhouse effect for one hundred years. Flood disaster resultsare instantaneous, yet drought is even more serious. Statistical data show thateconomic loss brought by drought is several times larger than that of flooddisaster.

With the rise of temperature, heavy rainfall in eastern China willincrease while small rainfall may decrease. Small rainfall is the main sourceof surface water. If temperature rises, evaporation will intensify. Accordingto an IPCC report, global temperature will rise 0.5 degree by 2040, in whichcase time between droughts in eastern China will be three times more than thatin the past. Actually, not only eastern China, but also the whole country needsto deal with such problem. China is already a country short of water, andmoreover, there are many giant reservoirs in China now, yet the number ofsmall-sized reservoirs is smaller than that in developed countries, andrecycling of water resource is even weaker than that in developed countries. IfChina fails to take measure to deal with water resource, it will face seriousproblems in agricultural water, living water and industrial water, and thewhole economic development will be affected, which will be a very large cost.

Reporter: China has put forward a “low carbon city” concept in order toprevent global warming, then how powerful do you think is such measure? 

Liu Shaochen: China’s “energy saving and low carbon” is different from “carbonreduction” I refer to. By saying “carbon reduction”, I mean that the totalemission of carbon decreases. The concept China puts forward actually refers toincrease of energy utilization rate. Take one ton of coal for example, thoughour emission is half of that in the past, the total coal I use is ten timesmore, then total carbon emission still increases. Moreover, there is not enoughtime for carbon reduction. CO2 can live for 100 years in the air, yet theeffect of carbon reduction won’t be seen until 50 years later. Globaltemperature will rise in 50 years, and increase of flood and drought disastersin eastern China is unavoidable. What we should do now is try to reduce loss ofdisaster by broadening water channels, solidifying dams and building reservoirs.

Reporter: How is China’s attitude toward climate change?

Liu Shaochen: China basically accepts view of IPCC, and there are manyChinese scientists in IPCC. However, IPCC is rather conservative, and thereforeboth Chinese government and many scientists think that global warming is only asmall rise of temperature and sea level, and though global warming may bringsome negative influences, the influences won’t be seen in a short time. Floodand drought have something to do with global warming, yet Chinese governmentdoes not think so. Though IPCC says that there is connection, it does notclearly say how serious the impact may be. Chinese government thinks it notserious, yet I think that it is very serious.   

Reporter: Are China’s measures toward climate change positive andeffective?

Liu Shaochen: China’s measures toward climate change differ little fromthat taken by other governments. In face of climate change, a country usuallyshould take two important measures: one is mitigation, the other is adaptation.Energy saving and carbon reduction is mitigation, and adaptation means how wedeal with problems after it already happens. China does not deal with problemsat all, while many other countries such as UK and Holland have taken measuresvery early to deal with rise of sea level. UK is protecting sea gate, and theyare doing better, yet Chinese government does not want to take measures andthink it as natural phenomenon. Though it is natural phenomenon, can we ignoreit when it is getting more and more serious? It is so naive to think thatbecause it is a natural phenomenon that it will not continue to be a problem.

There is also a cognition problem in government and scientific field. Chinaregards global warming as a problem, yet not an urgent one. For instance, PM2.5impacts China a lot, yet our government officials and EPB staff have longignored it. PM2.5 has more direct and detailed result than global warming.Apart from Chinese officials, the whole world regard it a very serious problem.However, China does not set up a standard until 2016 while many other countriesset up a standard 30 years ago and have carried the standard out. China’s is an“ostrich policy.” If we don’t solve such obvious problems, how can we deal withrather abstract influence of global warming?

Reporter: Chinese government has already taken certain measures to dealwith global warming. What stage do you think should such issue be taken onto?

Liu Shaochen: Indeed China has done something, yet it is pointed atglobal warming. Yunnan province has twice suffered severe drought, and Chinahas decided to build more small-size reservoirs and make it a regular measure.Natural disaster does have natural fluctuation, and frequency of fluctuation ishigher and higher, yet people only see the fluctuation without noticing gradualrise, and they only take measures when problems rise. There is no enough waterin Yunnan province because of drought, and kids have to walk over tenkilometers everyday to carry water home for cook. If there are more small-sizereservoirs in Yunnan, such problem can be solved. China should take globalwarming as a real new science, a science very important to the country, andcombine it with education and society and take it into consideration of overallnational policy.   

There aremany resources in China that can be used on such large-scale adaptationproject. If Chinese government truly realizes that it is necessary to do so, itcan do very well. If China can practice such big project as the South-NorthWater Diversion Project, it is not hard to build several small reservoirs.Moreover, Chinese government enjoys high administrative efficiency, andtherefore, once the government truly pays enough attention to such problem, itcan get very good results.  

Introduction of Liu Shaochen:

Graduatedfrom Pittsburgh University, America in 1972, distinguished researcher anddirector of Environment Change Research Center in Taiwan Central ResearchInstitute, part-time professor in National Central University and TaiwanUniversity, guest professor of Peking University, elected as member of AmericanGeophysical Union, won excellent paper prize awarded by American NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1981, 1989, and 1990, won councilorprize awarded by American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in1993