Abstract: The significant and various impacts of climate change are observed from the past experience, the impacts were shown as advantageous and adverse impacts in different sectors and regions, while mainly presented as adverse. It is very likely that future climate change would result in significant adverse impacts on the ecosystem and the national sectors such as agriculture, water resources, and coastal zones in China. The adverse impacts would be alleviated by adopting adaptive measures; the adaptive actions to climate change should be incorporated into the medium- and long-term planning of national economic and social development. Because of lack of scientific research and limit of understanding on climate change, there are still a lot of uncertainties for impact assessment methodology and results. Case studies should be strengthened, research aspects should be enlarged, and impacts assessment of extreme weather/climate events should be enhanced to reduce the uncertainties and develop practical adaptive measures to cope with climate change in China.

Key words: climate change in China, climate scenarios, impact assessment, adaptive measures, uncertainty