China's water resources authorities on Thursday, April 13 warned that the country is expected to face more frequent extreme weathers, including droughts and floods, and urged all the relevant departments to take preparations for emergent situations. As extreme weathers become more frequent under the big scenario of global climate change, tackling the damages caused by extreme weathers is one of the national strategies of China.

On March 29, the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2023 "Extreme Weather and Climate Change" forum was held. Zheng Guoguang, secretary-general of the National Disaster Reduction Committee and former deputy minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management, pointed out that weather-related natural disasters in China account for more than 50 percent of all natural disasters, and the number of deaths and missing persons caused by extreme weather accounts for more than 45% of all natural disasters. Amid the serious problems caused by extreme weather, Zheng indicated that China attaches equal importance to "mitigation" and "adaptation", which means to not only set goals and promote green and low-carbon development as well as participate in global climate governance, but also takes adapting to climate change and improving the capacity of disasters prevention and relief as a national strategy.

Zheng pointed out that authorities in China are making efforts to enhance the ability of monitoring in disasters, like launching eight satellites for meteorological monitoring and emergency broadcasting. At the same time, a warning release system covering the whole country has been established, with a citizen coverage rate of over 93 percent.

Except for the domestic efforts, China also actively offered supports to international organizations for more roles in the global response to extreme weather and climate change, including the UN and the Belt and Road Initiative members, according to Zheng's speech in the forum. According to Dr. Zhang Zhiqiang, director of Department of foreign cooperation and exchange of National Center for Climate change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC), China has allocated a total of about 1.2 billion yuan in response to climate change, by offering energy-saving and low-carbon products and organizing climate change workshops to help least-developed countries improve their capacity to cope with climate change. So far, 41 climate change cooperation documents have been signed with 36 developing countries to help improve their capacity to deal with climate change.

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