Mongolia was the main source of northern China's worst sandstorms in five years from January to April, and may have contributed as much as 70% of the dust floating over capital Beijing, China's environment ministry said on Monday.
Northern China is routinely hit by heavy sandstorms in the spring, with conditions worsened by deforestation and higher regional temperatures. It has tried to shield its major cities by planting extensive new forest known as "shelterbelts".
China experienced as many as 12 large-scale sand and dust storms in the first four months of 2023, said Jiang Huohua, vice-head of the monitoring office at China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment. "Several large-scale dust processes occurred this spring, and the major sources are mainly the Gobi desert in southern Mongolia and sand sources in our country's northwest," he added.
Around 77% of Mongolian land is regarded as degraded due to climate change and overgrazing, as per a 2021 assessment cited by the United Nations Development Programme. The country has also seen average temperatures rise by 2.2 degrees Celsius between 1940 and 2015, with rainfall plummeting 7% over the same period, according to a 2021 scientific study.
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