BEIJING - Average temperatures in Tibet are rising much faster than elsewhere in China due to global warming, leading to more frequent droughts and fires in the Himalayan region, a Chinese official and news media said Wednesday.
The temperature in Tibet has risen by 0.3 degrees Celsius every 10 years in the last 40 years, compared with the national average of 0.4 degrees every 100 years, said the deputy director of the Tibet meteorological bureau's climate centre.
The official, surnamed Du, was reached by telephone and would not give his full name.
Chinese scientists have warned in the past rising temperatures are altering Tibet's environment, with melting glaciers and receding snow lines and increased desertification. Isolated mountainous regions such as Tibet are proving more sensitive to the overall rise in the Earth's temperature over the last century.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging a new global treaty on climate change provide funding to help poor countries adapt to its damaging effects.
China's Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday disasters such as droughts, landslides, snowstorms and fires are more frequent in Tibet as a result of rising temperatures.
The vast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in western China is the source of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and Chinese scientists have warned in the past climate change has cut the amount of water flowing down them by drying out wetlands that feed the rivers.
China's stunning economic growth means it accounted for 58 per cent of carbon emissions worldwide in 2000-06, the International Energy Agency said in a recent report. While not keen to accept binding emissions caps, it is trying to invest in technology to cut down on harmful emissions.
