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Climate change
Opinion
SCMP Editorial
Editorial
SCMP Editorial

As China invests in climate defence, private capital has a role to play

The central government has allocated billions to climate resilience infrastructure, but the damage wrought by Typhoon Bavi shows more needs to be done

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People drag a fallen tree to clear a road after heavy rain and strong winds brought by Typhoon Bavi in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, on July 12. Photo: Reuters
SCMP Editorial
Editorials represent the views of the South China Morning Post on the issues of the day.
Much of western Europe, parts of the US and Britain have been enveloped in a heat dome this summer. Typhoon Bavi, one of the most severe storms in years, wreaked havoc across East Asia. It battered eastern China, resulting in heavy rain and over 2 million people having to evacuate. Scientists say the developing “super” El Nino – caused by unusually high sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean – is partly to blame.

Extreme weather events are occurring with increasing frequency. Few countries have been spared. China is one of the few that has made climate resilience a matter of national policy. Despite denials from some quarters, climate change is a global reality. Governments that are best prepared to mitigate its effects will be better placed to protect their economies and people going forward.

Besides leading the world in the transition to green energy and electrification, China is making massive investments in building more resilient infrastructure and disaster relief responses. Rather than reacting when disasters happen, Beijing is uniquely engaged in large-scale advance planning for natural disasters.

Even so, it remains a work in progress. While casualties are often reported, what is harder to determine is the number of lives saved as a result of such mitigation planning.

China is among the world’s most highly exposed countries to floods, with nearly 400 million people directly exposed to once-in-100-year floods, representing more than a third of global exposure, according to a World Bank study in 2022. The country loses an estimated 1 per cent of its gross domestic product each year to floods, with more than 640 cities subject to flood risks and 67 per cent of the population living in flood-prone areas.

Since 2015, Beijing has been rolling out its “sponge city” initiative to make cities better at absorbing excess rain. But it’s often not enough to mitigate severe flooding. Recent extreme floods in major cities prompted massive national investment plans. Ageing dams and underground pipelines are being identified as critical infrastructure. Billions have been invested in improving major coastal infrastructure. The central government has increased funding for flood control infrastructure, allocating 44.77 billion yuan (US$6.6 billion) for water conservancy and 160 billion yuan for urban drainage this year.
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