By Taylah Bland

Copyright eco-business

In 2024, state media reported that Fengwu, a forecasting system developed by Shanghai AI Laboratory, had pushed effective global weather forecasts beyond a 10-day window. More recently, in July this year, the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Service launched the Lingxi AI tool to assist forecasters with their analysis and decision-making. Lingxi integrates real-time and historical weather data with “local extreme-weather knowledge” to provide risk warnings and recommendations, explains China Meteorological News.

Although both systems are still evolving, they could prove instrumental in deepening understanding of localised climate threats. Fengwu, for example, has been leveraged to improve early preparedness to typhoons in Shanghai. While further accuracy improvements are needed, Fengwu illustrates the value of localised AI models for prioritising responses to local climate impacts. National adaptation strategies can clearly be complemented by regional innovation.

While cities are increasingly adopting AI to tailor extreme-weather predictions to local needs, there still remains a clear need for national-level systems that provide larger-scale tracking and understanding.

At the World AI Conference in Shanghai this July, the China Meteorological Administration launched Mazu, a global early warning initiative that covers many types of disasters in one system, including storms, floods and heatwaves. According to Prevention Web, it aims to “provide early-warning technical support, strengthen risk-assessment systems, enhance capacity building, and develop cooperative models and mechanisms.”

While Mazu will benefit China domestically through comprehensive weather tracking, it has also been designed to help fill critical gaps in the early-warning capabilities of other countries. Mazu is borne from an understanding that extreme weather is a global challenge that requires cross-border collaboration and shared technological solutions.

The shared challenge of extreme weather

As climate impacts become more destructive, adaptation and resilience will require not only local and national action in China but regional and international cooperation. Extreme-weather events have transboundary impacts. In 2024, Typhoon Yagi, which did extensive damage in south China, caused almost 600 deaths in Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and the Philippines.Classified as a developing country, China has no obligation under the UN climate process to support developing countries in their adaptation and resilience efforts. But it has stepped up anyway to launch initiatives and show support for the efforts of some of the most climate-vulnerable developing countries.

At the COP29 climate summit in 2024, China launched two major initiatives that reinforce this support.The Action Plan on Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation (2025-2027) is designed to create a shared system to track and predict extreme weather, share disaster-preparedness knowledge and tools, and improve regional cooperation on early warnings.Meanwhile, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexian announced that China would develop and implement a South-South cooperation flagship project. This will provide developing countries with meteorological observation equipment, early-warning systems and training.

China has shown leadership, but the growing severity of climate impacts demands more. As such, the country should explore the potential of creating joint-research projects, cross-border climate-risk assessments, and shared financing for resilient infrastructure.In particular, China can strengthen the existing C40 Cities partnership – a global network of nearly 100 mayors committed to addressing climate change – to deepen technical and planning insights with participating cities like Houston, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro. Such cities face many similar extreme weather challenges to the 13 Chinese cities in the network.

China can use C40 as inspiration for creating its own separate bilateral or “minilateral” collaborations at the subnational level between other interested cities to further enhance action on adaptation and resilience. These collaborations could take the form of best-practice sharing or extend to scaling pre-existing initiatives like early-warning systems and boosting local capacity.

China is already leveraging its strengths in technical innovation and enhancing local, state and international coordination. By fostering collaborative learning and insulating climate-resilience efforts from broader geopolitical volatility, the country can help lead a new phase of pragmatic, people-centred climate action that safeguards communities and livelihoods.

This article was originally published on Dialogue Earth under a Creative Commons licence.