Impacts of Climate Change on Chinese Agriculture
The project, Impacts of Climate Change on Chinese Agriculture (ICCCA), combined cutting-edge scientific research with practical development policy advice. Since 2001, the project has led the way in understanding how climate change can be expected to affect rural China.
The project was funded by the United Kingdom's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) now transferred to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for International Development (DfID), conducted in partnership with China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).
The research was led by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in collaboration with leading UK climate change researchers.
Phase I (2001- 2004) of the project sought to understand how climate change will affect Chinese agriculture overall. Phase II (2005-2008) built on this work, recognising the need to understand more about the science of climate change and to incorporate the views of local people before developing policy measures to adapt to climate change.
Building on Phase I, Phase II (2005 to 2008) refined and widened the national level analysis. CAAS also worked in collaboration with major regional implementers such as the Clean Development Mechanism Service Centre (Ningxia) and Meteorological Study Institute (Ningxia), and engaged a range of stakeholders to assess the impact of climate change on rural livelihoods. This led to the development of the first regional adaptation framework in China – for the northern province of Ningxia.
ICCCA was completed in December 2008. The key findings and approaches for the project are summarised in six leaflets for policymakers. These are:
- Overall summary of results
- Understanding how China's climate may change in the future
- Modelling the impacts of climate change on cereal production in China
- Modelling the interaction of climate change - water availability and socio-economic scenarios on cereal production
- Rural livelihoods and vulnerability to climate hazards in Ningxia
- An adaptation framework and strategy for Ningxia
The full technical reports from the project can be found here.
ICCCA results were disseminated at two workshops held in Ningxia (29 October 2008) and Beijing (31 October 2008) as well as at a side event held during the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP-14) in Poznan, Poland, in December 2008.