China preparing national plan for climate change

China is preparing its first plan to battle wrenching climate change, a senior policy adviser said, stressing rising alarm about global warming in a nation where economic growth has gone untethered.

Zou Ji, a climate policy expert at the People's University of China in Beijing, told Reuters the national programme will probably set broad goals for emissions and coping with changing weather patterns.

It is likely to be released this year after at least two years of preparation and bureaucratic bargaining, he said.