Chongqing - Professor Feng Yuming, who specializes in environmental science, revealed his insights on the latest academic progress of climate change research and expressed his support for the China-Europe Youth Dialogue.
Professor Feng worked at the Ocean University of China. Before this job, he obtained a Ph.D. degree at Kiel University. As an environmental scientist, his long-term engagement in the related field enriches his knowledge about the country and the world’s climate issues. (Photo/ Feng Yuming)
Professor Feng believes that politics can help the world deal with climate issues or that it becomes the enemy of cooperation. Seeing uncertainties in the current international political atmosphere, some politicians utilize climate issues to serve their goals in international competitions. He referred to such actions as “the worst scenario mankind could face.”
“If nothing is going to be done to de-escalate such ongoing hostility that is deeply buried in a lot of people’s minds, there will be more resources from major powers to be allocated into the matters that relate to security and military instead of allocating those into clean technology access and the global coordinated actions,” he said.
Therefore, he wishes that the dialogue among youths in different countries can build a foundation of consensus on climate issues as a global emergency that all human faces.
At the end of 2020, China’s total installed photovoltaic capacity was 308 GW, accounting for over one-third of the world’s total installed photovoltaic capacity. (Photo/ Xinhua News)
How climate change has primarily affected our life is a question under debate among the world’s scientists, with perhaps fanatical concerns of some politicians raising the fundamental question of climate uncertainty.
Professor Feng believes that recently the world is getting closer to reaching a consensus. “The theory of greenhouse gas causing the warming has always been very profoundly and strongly defended with more compelling evidence,” he said.
Professor Feng thinks climate change can effectively change people’s way of life, which should concern China. He raised the example of a surface temperature increase, which is twice as fast as the global average level, with unevenly distributed precipitation.
“The precipitation in China has increased by 5.5 millimeters every ten years since 1961, and it is always unevenly distributed,” said Professor Feng.
He continued that without enough precipitation, it will cause a much higher irrigation pressure on areas. “Flood is a concern when the precipitation is too high, as we saw from Zhengzhou, and we saw it from also in many other places this year,” Professor Feng said.
On July 20, Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of China’s Henan Province, recorded 201.9 millimeters of rainfall within an hour, the highest ever figure recorded since measurements began in 1951.
Several of China’s southeast provincial regions experienced flooding and landslide. The average precipitation in Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi from early May to mid-June reached 621 millimeters, the highest record ever since 1961.
Facing critical climate problems, China is one of the most active countries in launching environmental actions. China is shifting the power from coal plants to renewable energy like wind and solar panels.
China is slowly decarbonizing itself in its GDP growth. In 2021, China's carbon dioxide emissions per GDP were reduced by 3.8%, which was half of the 2005 level.