Swathes of northern and central China sweltered this week under record May heat, state media said Tuesday, with temperatures rising well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in several major cities.
China has endured spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several summers running.
The country is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, but also a renewable energy powerhouse seeking to cut carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2060.
State broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday that multiple cities logged all-time May highs this week.
They included Zhengzhou, a metropolis of 13 million people in central Henan province, which saw a high of 41C on Monday, CCTV said.
In nearby Linzhou, temperatures rose to 43.2C, while the small city of Shahe in northern Hebei province logged 42.9C, the national weather office said in a social media post on Monday.
As of 4:00 pm on Monday, 99 weather stations nationwide had matched or exceeded previous temperature records for May, the weather office said.
“(It’s so hot) in Zhengzhou that I’m covered in sweat just from cycling for 10 minutes in a skirt and sun-protective top,” one user wrote on the Weibo social media platform.
“Any chance you could send a few degrees up to the northeast? It’s still freezing here,” quipped another.
The weather office said the extreme heat was set to dissipate by Friday, adding that some areas would see rapid drops of up to 15C.
It urged people to “add extra layers of clothing in a timely way as the weather changes, (to avoid) catching a cold”.
Last year, dozens of people were killed and thousands evacuated during storms across China that caused severe flooding.
China is the biggest global producer of the greenhouse gases scientists say drive climate change and make extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Beijing aims to bring carbon emissions to a peak this decade ahead of sharp cuts through to 2060, and has dramatically ramped up wind and solar energy installations in recent years as it seeks to wean its huge economy off highly polluting coal.
Emissions peaking?
China’s emissions fell in the first quarter of 2025 despite rapidly growing power demand, analysis published last week showed, seen as a key milestone in the country’s decarbonisation push.
New wind, solar and nuclear capacity meant CO2 emissions fell by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and one percent in the 12 months to March, said analyst Lauri Myllyvirta at the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Last month, China’s national energy body said wind and solar energy capacity had surpassed that of mostly coal-powered thermal for the first time.
It added that wind and solar additions had “far exceeded” the total increase in electricity consumption, a trend that experts said may mean carbon emissions from the power sector are on the verge of peaking.
Despite the renewable energy boom, China also began construction on 94.5 gigawatts of coal power projects in 2024, 93 percent of the global total, according to a February report from CREA and the US-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
China’s coal production has risen steadily in recent years, from 3.9 billion tons in 2020 to 4.8 billion tons in 2024.
