Climate change is making some of the poorest people in China even more destitute and undermining the development that has been a cornerstone of Chinese Communist Party rule, academics and campaigners said yesterday.
The most poverty-stricken parts of the country are often also the most vulnerable to changing weather patterns, and farmers in these places are already feeling the pinch from floods and drought, a report from Greenpeace and aid group Oxfam said.
“The distribution of poor communities correlates very strongly to that of ecologically fragile areas,” prominent economist Hu Angang said in an introduction to the report, which looks in detail at three communities.
One county in southwestern Sichuan is grappling with an increase in torrential rains which have destroyed homes by undermining their foundations and damaged fields. A second case study looks at a poor corner of Guangdong Province that is troubled by a rise in droughts and flooding. The third case study is a county in Gansu Province suffering from intensified drought.
“The impact of climate change on poor communities is a new phenomenon, a new challenge, in man’s fight against poverty,” Hu said.
The impact on people in areas like these may make it harder for Beijing to lift ordinary citizens out of poverty, the report said.
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