China is warming faster than the global average, while extreme heat, heavy rainfall and other severe weather events are becoming more frequent and intense as climate change accelerates worldwide, according to a new climate assessment released on Thursday.
The Blue Book on Climate Change in China 2026, published by the China Meteorological Administration, said global warming continues unabated, oceans are heating more rapidly, glaciers are melting at an accelerated pace and sea levels have reached record highs.
“The trend of global climate warming continues to evolve,” Yuan Jiashuang, deputy director of the National Climate Center, said at a news conference.
According to the blue book, the global average surface temperature in 2025 was about 1.4 C above pre-industrial levels, making it the third-warmest year since modern records began in 1850. The period from 2015 to 2025 was the warmest 11-year span on record.
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Atmospheric concentrations of the three major greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — all reached record highs in 2024, the blue book said.
From 1961 to 2025, China’s annual average temperature increased by 0.31 C per decade, exceeding the global average warming rate over the same period, according to the report. Northern China warmed more rapidly than southern regions, while western China experienced faster warming than the east.
China’s average temperature in 2025 ranked among the country’s two warmest years since nationwide records began in 1901. Eastern and central China recorded their highest annual average temperatures since 1961, while Shanghai’s Xujiahui Observatory registered its warmest year since local observations began in 1873.
The report also found that although China’s annual precipitation has generally increased, the number of rainy days has declined.
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Average annual rainfall rose by 6.3 millimeters per decade between 1961 and 2025, while the number of precipitation days fell by nearly one day per decade. Rainfall patterns varied widely by region, with wetter conditions across the Tibetan Plateau and parts of northern China, but declining precipitation in southwestern regions.