Recent Progress in the Joint Agreements on "Global and Regional Climate Change" Studies between the United States and the People's Republic of China

Abstract

This report summarizes the progress since 1991 of two agreements on “global and regional climate change” studies between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and two state agencies of the People's Republic of China. The first agreement is the DOE–Chinese Academy of Science joint project on the “Study of the Greenhouse Effect” and the second agreement is the DOE–China Meteorological Administration joint project on the “Study of Regional Climate.” While development of general circulation climate models and analysis of climate data over China continues, the joint research produced several unique Chinese climate datasets, including the reconstruction of 2000 years of historical climate, quality assured instrumental climate data, and an archive of methane emissions from rice fields in southern China.