The following document is China’s climate change adaptation strategy for the period 2022-2035. It replaces an earlier strategy that covered the years 2013-2020. This new strategy aims to make China’s society and economy more resilient in the face of climate change through better monitoring and prediction of extreme weather, more resilient crops, farmland, and waterways, and other measures. The strategy is designed to complement China’s ongoing efforts to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Chinese source text is available online at:
https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2022-06/14/5695555/files/9ce4e0a942ff4000a8a68b84b2fd791b.pdf

An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at: https://perma.cc/G394-SZ8B
U.S. $1 ≈ 6.8 Chinese Yuan Renminbi (RMB), as of August 29, 2022.

National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035

Preface

Over the past century, under the combined influence of human activity and natural factors, the world has been experiencing climate change with global warming as a significant feature. The international community has increasingly recognized the serious threats and challenges climate warming poses to the present and future survival and development of mankind, and a global consensus has formed around taking active measures to address climate change. Mitigation and adaptation are the two major strategies for addressing climate change, and they are both mutually reinforcing and indispensable.

Mitigation means reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sinks through the long-term adjustment of natural ecosystems and energy, industrial, and other economic systems, in order to stabilize and reduce concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gasses and slow down the rate of climate change. In this process, the climate risks that have already occurred will not be eliminated. Potential climate risks are still accumulating, and they will continue to do so for a certain length of time even after the global achievement of a carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality.

Adaptation means strengthening the risk identification and management of natural ecosystems and economic and social systems, taking adjustment measures, fully utilizing favorable factors, and preventing unfavorable factors, in order to lessen the adverse impacts and potential risks arising from climate change. The impacts and risks of climate change are significantly regionalized in nature, and effective adaptation actions can reduce the adverse impacts and risks of climate change faced by countries and regions, which is more realistic and urgent for assuring economic and social development and ecological and environmental security.

China has always adhered to both mitigation and adaptation, and has implemented national strategies to actively address climate change. In order to coordinate promotion of climate change adaptation, China released its first National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy in 2013, specifying the overall requirements, key tasks, regional patterns, and assurance measures for climate change adaptation from 2014 to 2020, providing the guidance and foundation for climate change adaptation work. Since the release of the first National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, China has achieved positive results in climate change adaptation, but given the long-term nature and complexity of climate change, current analysis and assessment of climate change impacts and risks are still insufficient, and the degree of emphasis and action on climate change adaptation still need to be increased.

The period from now to 2035 is a critical one in which China will basically achieve socialist modernization and build a beautiful China (美丽中国). The Outline of the People’s Republic of China 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Range Objectives for 2035¹ expressly proposes strengthening observation and assessment of the impact of global warming on China’s regions with weak resilience (承受力), and boosting the ability of urban and rural construction, agricultural production, and infrastructure to adapt to climate change. The Opinions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council on Further Tackling the Challenge of Pollution Prevention and Control makes formulating the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035 (the “Strategy“) and vigorously promoting climate change adaptation pilot efforts important tasks.

In order to implement the decisions and deployments of the CCP Central Committee and the State Council, strengthen China’s actions and initiatives for adapting to climate change, and improve its ability to prevent and defend against climate risk, this Strategy puts forward the guiding ideology, basic principles, and main objectives of China’s adaptation to climate change in the new period based on an in-depth assessment of climate change risks and impacts, and the effectiveness of climate change adaptation work and its challenges and opportunities. Based on the exposure and vulnerability of various areas and regions to the adverse impacts and risks of climate change, it further clarifies the key areas, regional patterns, and assurance measures for China’s climate change adaptation work. This Strategy‘s target period goes to 2035, and adjustments will be made during its practical implementation based on changing circumstances and the work requirements.

For the full translation, download the PDF below.

1. Translator’s note: CSET’s English translation of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan Outline is available online at: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/china-14th-five-year-plan/.