China: Country braces for worst heat wave in decades

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Air: Sven Hauberg

The Jialing River in Chongqing City is now just a trickle. © Mark Schiefelbein/Image Alliance/dpa/AP

Dry rivers and sweaty pandas: China has been hit by a heat wave and drought for weeks. This affects the economy.

MUNICH/CHENGDU – Unity is much talked about in Germany these days. Before the heat cools down in winter, the industry cannot produce because of the lack of gas from Russia. Citizens should start saving now. Take short showers, wait for heaters, and ventilate properly. But it remains to be seen whether those who can keep the windows open and warm will follow suit. In China We’re already more connected: people are showing solidarity in the face of an unprecedented heat wave and dramatic energy disruption in the People’s Republic, and the whole country is participating. At least that’s the picture the state media and tightly controlled social media have been portraying for days.

“Conserving electricity and water is what we need to do now. We must unite to overcome difficulties,” writes one user on Weibo, to applause from more than 40,000 people. A video showing a woman surnamed Li pulling a package of food on a long rope to the 25th floor of her apartment building is also currently circulating on social media. Just before she placed the order, the woman from Sichuan province said the power went out. Ms Li came up with the idea of ​​using a rope to prevent the delivery boy from climbing hundreds of steps in the current daily temperature of around 40 degrees.

The heat wave in China is also affecting the economy

Sichuan is in western China Bordering Tibet. The province generates more than 80 percent of its electricity with hydropower, a portion of which is usually exported to other parts of the country. However, for weeks now, the province has been hit by drought and heat waves not seen in decades. Once mighty rivers have turned into creeks, making it difficult to generate electricity there. According to an analysis by investment bank Morgan Stanley, daily electricity generation from hydropower has declined by 51 percent. At the same time, private demand is increasing as many people cannot bear it without air conditioning in their homes or offices due to high temperatures.

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In the past few days, there have been repeated power outages – affecting not only private households but also many companies in the province. These include global companies such as Apple’s contract manufacturers Foxconn, Bosch and Toyota. Electric cars and photovoltaic systems are especially manufactured in Sichuan, and raw materials such as lithium and polysilicon are also mined. All these industries are affected by supply chain disruptions. Even as far away as Shanghai – some 1,700 kilometers from the Sichuan capital Chengdu – the effects of the energy crisis in the western part of the country can be felt. Shanghai’s world-famous waterfront, the Ball, was lights out on Monday and Tuesday. That’s because the metropolis of 24 million gets part of its electricity from hydropower plants along the border between Sichuan and Yunnan and from the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze, whose banks had the lowest rainfall in July in 60 years.

Heat wave in China: Even pandas are sweating

It’s too hot even for pandas living in large protected areas near the capital Chengdu: China’s state news agency Xinhua published images showing how giant panda Qing Qing chilled in a large block of ice.

But Sichuan isn’t the only one suffering from extreme heat. In central China’s Henan province, a woman recently carried home a live shrimp she bought at a market in a plastic bag filled with water, which boiled from the heat on the way home. In Guangzhou, in the southern part of the country, a man shared a photo of the soles of his shoes melting on the burning hot asphalt.

Large parts of the country are currently experiencing the worst heat wave since records began in 1961, and an exceptional drought. According to official statistics, a total of 14 Chinese provinces and regions are currently experiencing “moderate to severe” drought. The east coast metropolis of Nanjing and the city of Nanchang in the central province of Jiangxi have yet to see any rain throughout August.

The drought has already affected food supplies. Northeast of Nanchang is Boyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake. Recently, however, Boyang has shrunk to just a quarter of its normal size. In the middle of dry water, a truly sunken island reappeared with a historic lighthouse. Irrigation canals that supply water to rice fields in the region are dry – so the government dug new ditches to irrigate part of the fields.

This is urgently needed because China has seven percent of the world’s usable agricultural land, but 22 percent of the world’s population must provide for it. This is a dilemma that is likely to worsen as the country is predicted to face increasingly severe and prolonged periods of heat and drought in the future.

China is affected by climate change – and is driving it

Efforts are now being made everywhere in China to reduce energy consumption. In the Yangtze metropolis of Chongqing, east of Chengdu, many shopping centers opened only in the afternoon – and only for a few hours, to save energy. Since July, the city has recorded temperatures above 35 degrees for more than 30 days. So dozens of subway stations have been converted into shelters. According to a Xinhua report, some of the city’s residents fled to bunkers to cool off during World War II. Forest fires also broke out in many places in the area.

Many hydroelectric plants across the country are not operating at full capacity, forcing the government to burn more coal. China is currently responsible for about 30 percent of global CO₂ emissions – and with it At first glance, a climate sinner who is now feeling the effects of man-made climate change. In reality, however, China’s per capita emissions are only about half that of the United States—and about the same as Germany’s. In addition, many emissions result from the production of goods that are not consumed in China but abroad. Additionally, emissions in China have been at their lowest levels for decades and have only risen sharply since 2000.

Nevertheless, China now faces the urgent question of how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without slowing economic growth. By 2060, the state president and party leader declared Xi Jinping Two years ago, the country actually wanted to achieve CO₂ neutrality. Although the EU and the US wanted to get there ten years ago, it is an ambitious goal. This year, additional coal burned should not increase CO₂ emissions because less is being produced at the same time – due to current power cuts, but Because there are many corona lockdowns across the country. But China’s emissions aren’t expected to actually drop until 2030. It is already evident that time is of the essence everywhere in the country. (sh)

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