Drylands face a 4 °C warming under Paris Agreement’s goal

[NEW DELHI] The Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting average全球暖化to less than two degrees Celsius is insufficient to protect the world’s drylands, a new study says.

The学习，在线发布自然气候变化this month (24 April), also suggests that reducing the global warming target to 1.5 degrees Celsius is beneficial to both drylands and humid regions.

These findings are important for Asia-Pacific, a region with both dry and humid lands. The regions surrounding the Thar desert in western India are dry, while the northeast is among the wettest areas in the world. The South-East Asian countries are extremely humid.

“大多数拥有旱地国家的国家都是发展中国家，代表性差。”

半干旱气候变化的主要实验室Jianping Huang

旱地覆盖地球表面积的41％。低土壤水分含量，稀疏的植被覆盖物和薄云，可增强因降雨量少的地区的表面变暖。在过去的一个世纪中，旱地的地面变暖比潮湿的土地高20％至40％，趋势正在增加。

通过模拟在平均全球变暖的两个摄氏摄氏度下的条件，来自中国和美国的研究人员发现，与工业前时代的温度相比，旱地的摄氏3.2 - 4摄氏度将更热，而潮湿地区的潮湿温度将升高2.4 -2.6摄氏度。

Despite emitting significantly less greenhouse gases drylands will end up receiving the brunt of human-induced climate change. The consequences can be disastrous as drylands are home to more than two billion people 90 per cent of whom live in developing countries. The resulting temperature increase can result in reducedmaize yields，更长的干旱并创造有利于疟疾传播.

此外，在巴黎协定等全球气候对话中，拥有旱地的国家没有得到足够的考虑。

中国半干旱气候变化的主要实验室主任兼首席科学家Jianping Huang说：“大多数拥有旱地国家的国家的代表性不佳。”他认为，将变暖目标降低到1.5摄氏度可以减轻旱地的负担，并使潮湿的国家受益。

印度半干旱热带地区国际农作物研究所的首席科学家沙拉兰德·库马尔（Shalander Kumar）说，这项研究对气候变化对潮湿和旱地地区的区域贡献和影响有了更好的了解。

然而，库马尔说，作物的产量变化要复杂得多。“降雨分布的变化可能会对作物产量产生重大影响，而二氧化碳水平升高可能会对作物产量产生积极影响。”



This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.