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Rich nations need to 'lend their help'

By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-12 08:18

Developing countries, vulnerable to extreme weather and climatic catastrophes, need proper technology and funding to deal with the adverse affects of global warming, China's top meteorologist said Thursday.

Developing countries are ill-equipped and susceptible to the consequences of climate change, Zheng Guoguang, chief of the China Meteorological Administration, said.

"It is imperative for developed economies to ensure financial flow and the transfer of technology," he said.

"The most immediate threat of global warming is the intense increase in climatic extremes such as droughts, heat waves, floods and hurricanes, which cause disasters and put people and property at risk," Zheng said.

Addressing the issue of natural disasters should be the first defense line for developing countries in their battle against climate change, Zheng, also a member of China's National Leading Group on Climate Change, said.

Zheng made the remarks as negotiators from some 190 countries and regions met in Poznan, Poland, to discuss climate change mitigation and adaptation issues.

The 12-day annual gathering is scheduled to end today but sources said little progress was achieved through the talks.

The condition of developing countries, especially the least developed ones, is "deplorable" when exposed to weather extremes, Zheng said.

"For example, cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in May, was the deadliest climate event of 2008 so far, claiming an estimated 84,500 lives."

China is also vulnerable to extreme weather and climate conditions, even though it has made painstaking efforts to address the problem, including fortifying infrastructure and putting contingency plans into place, Zheng said.

Climate-induced disasters have affected the lives of 400 million people annually since 1990, and killed at least 4,000 each year in China, official statistics show.

Zheng blamed the unrestricted consumption of fossil energies by developed countries during their industrialization for contributing to the high concentration of greenhouse gases.

International assistance should first go toward enabling developing countries establish a national climate change strategy, improving disaster monitoring, precaution and risk management systems and disseminating anti-disaster knowledge among the people, Zheng said.