Last summer, the southern Chinese city of Zhengzhou faced torrential rains. In three days, it rained the amount expected for the entire year. Among the victims of the floods were 14 people who died inside a subway car in the city, capital of Henan province. The news shocked the country.
When it comes to China and climate change, the highlight is often the fact that the country is the biggest global emitter of CO2. But Beijing also occupies the top of another ranking: it is among the most vulnerable nations in the world to the impacts of this crisis.
Beijing is expected to suffer the greatest economic losses from rising sea levels and flooding. Its GDP and population are concentrated on the coast, and about 25% of the coast is considered highly vulnerable, according to the United Nations.
China knows that global warming and extreme weather events are an inevitable reality, given the advanced state of the problem. It invests in reducing emissions, but recognizes that this is not enough. The country — and Chinese cities — need to be better prepared for fires, floods and high temperatures. The urbanization process, as elsewhere, largely ignored the climate factor.
The subject gained prominence with a national strategy focused precisely on adaptation to climate change, launched in June. By 2035, the country should, according to the plan, become more resilient through infrastructure reforms and the establishment of effective systems to prevent disasters such as the Zhengzhou subway.
The Chinese machine prepares itself with conviction. Technocracy’s approach is typical of large-scale problems: using engineering and technical solutions to plan and literally build solutions. This is the Chinese beach. Experiment from pilot initiatives. They set goals and also provide space for local authorities to find ways to deliver results.
The newly announced strategy includes, for example, enhancing the ability to artificially modify the weather to protect what they consider important ecosystems. Making it rain and stop raining is in the plans. To this way of operating, authorities are now adding smart city technologies, with sensors, big data and artificial intelligence to, among other things, create efficient disaster prevention systems.
The sponge city concept, for example, has gained a lot of visibility in the local press in the last year. A pilot project was launched in 2015, with the objective of enabling the absorption and reuse of at least 70% of rainwater by 2030. Shanghai is one of 30 cities participating in the initiative. The idea is to allow the soil more time and space to absorb water, using, for example, permeable paving, green spaces and underground reservoirs.
As the Northern Hemisphere, and Europe in particular, experience record temperatures today and race against time to adapt to a new reality, it will be inevitable to look to China’s experience. It is certain that the country will become a reference in climate adaptation, even if its trajectory includes mistakes and controversies. The world can choose not to be inspired by China’s experience with resilient infrastructure or smart cities, but it cannot be ignored.
There are no deniers in the leadership of the country that is among the most vulnerable in the world to this emergency. In addition to significant economic and human damage, climate change brings with it the risk of social unrest and political instability — if only Beijing needed more reasons to act.
