Chinese President Xi Jinping calls for greater efforts to fight desertification after climate change leads to spike in dust clouds

The Chinese leader says the country’s policies have been having an effect but warns that a sustained, long-term effort is still needed to fight the problem
More incidents have been recorded in the past couple of years, including major storms that affected vast areas of the country

Environment

Echo Xie

Published: 9:00pm, 7 Jun 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a greater effort to tackle desertification as he warned the number of dust clouds hitting the north of the country had increased as a result of climate change.

Xi made the comments during a tour of Inner Mongolia on Monday and Tuesday, saying the country had made remarkable progress in preventing and controlling desertification, but still faced major challenges.

“In the past two years, the number of dusty weather incidents in northern China has increased due to the impact of climate change,” Xi said on Tuesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.

While China’s desertification control work had shown an “overall and accelerated improvement”, he warned large areas were still affected and urged officials to understand that it would need “long-term, arduous, repetitive and uncertain” efforts to tackle the problem.

Asia climate woes mount as heat shatters May records

In the first four months of 2023, there were 11 dust events in northern China – the highest number over the same period in the past decade, Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Centre, said earlier this year.

Three of the incidents were classified as sandstorms, including one that happened between March 19 and 23 and was the third strongest storm recorded this century, affecting an area of over 4.85 million sq km (1.9 million sq miles), according to Xinhua.

Another dust storm in early April swept more than 20 provinces and affected an area of 4.6 million sq km.

Xi Jinping pictured at an agriculture demonstration park on the south bank of the Wuliangsu Lake in Inner Mongolia, a visit he used to promote environmental policies. Photo: Xinhua

A Chinese study – published in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences in May – found that Mongolia and China’s largest desert, the Taklamakan in Xinjiang, were the two main sources of sand and dust in northern China.

This spring it said dust and sand blowing across the border with Mongolia was responsible for 42 per cent of the dust concentration while the Taklamakan contributed 26 per cent.

The study found that the intensified Mongolian cyclone and a cold front were the key factors for the dust events, carrying dust and sand southwards.

Northern China has been affected by dust storms for decades, but the frequency and intensity of the events has decreased in recent years due to control works.

China faces calls to expand its carbon emissions rights trading

China implemented the Great Green Wall project in 1978, aiming to plant some 88 million acres of forests in a belt stretching across an area as wide as 4,800km by 1,500km (3,000 by 900 miles).

The plan – officially known as the Three-North Shelterbelt Project – aims to increase forest cover in the region from 5 per cent in 1978 to 15 per cent by 2050, and had reached 13.6 per cent by 2019.

Ma Jun, director of Beijing-based non-profit the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said the frequency and intensity of dust events had been decreasing over the past two decades.

“It’s not only because of the implementation of the Great Green Wall project, but also other policies such as the Green for Grain programme,” he said.

The Chinese government has been promoting policies to improve forest cover in recent decades. Photo: Xinhua

The Green for Grain programme, in which the government paid farmers to plant trees on their land to combat deforestation, was established in 1999.

During his trip to Inner Mongolia, Xi said this decade would be critical for desert control efforts.

“[We should] use 10 years to build the Three-North Shelterbelt Project into a fully functional and unbreakable green great wall and ecological security barrier in northern China,” Xi said.

He also stressed the importance of improving the quality and stability of desert ecosystems.

With key industries at stake, China and Mongolia team up to stop desertification

Ma said China had learned lessons from its previous efforts to tackle desertification, and its experiences could be shared with other countries.

“For example, there should be a combination of trees, shrubs and grasses … depending on the local ecology – rather than just planting trees,” he said.

“China has some 2.5 million sq km under desertification, so the desertification control work is difficult and can’t be relaxed.”