China, which usually speaks with one voice on controversial issues, appears to be split on global warming with equally high-ranking experts differing on validity of the threat.

Global air, sea and road transports sectors have been faced with major expenses to meet rising regulatory compliance costs, some of which are set in ways to drive smaller operators out of business.

Reuters has reported the existence of a report which takes global warming seriously while the South China Morning Post did an exhaustive interview Liu Yu, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Earth Environment, whose research of Tibetan tree rings, led him to say:

“We are not experiencing the most dramatic climate change in recent history. In northern China, the warmest period occurred from 401-413 AD, which had an annual mean temperature 0.16 degrees Celsius higher than today’s.”

Against him is Lin Erda, a researcher with the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who said:

“China faces extremely grim ecological and environmental conditions under the impact of continued global warming and changes to China’s regional environment,” says the 710-page report, which he co-authored.

His Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change predicts that global warming will cause China’s grain output to fall by between five to 20 per cent, shrinking rivers, droughts and floods unless drastic action is taken against carbon emissions.

But the Chinese Academy of Science’s expert, Prof Liu said: “Popular belief is that industrialization has led to the fastest rate of warming witnessed by humans, that we are at the warmest time of the modern era and that we are causing global warming by emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. None of that fits the records in tree rings.

“The climate change debate has more political significance than scientific. Diplomats can sit at negotiating tables talking about carbon caps while scientists have not reached an agreement on the role of carbon dioxide in global warming,” he said at the time of the Durban climate change conference.

“Political decisions must be based on sound scientific foundation, or they will be useless, if not dangerous,” he told the SCMP in an extended interview.

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