China sees rising vegetation coverage from 2000 to 2021: blue paper

China is becoming greener, with a steady increase in its vegetation coverage from 2000 to 2021, according to an official blue paper released Wednesday.

During this period, China's normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), a key indicator of green coverage, reported a steady increase, stated the Blue Book on Climate Change in China (2022) issued by the China Meteorological Administration.

Compared with the average level from 2001 to 2020, the NDVI rose 7.9 percent in 2021, marking the best performance of vegetation coverage since 2000, according to the report.

It noted that the average annual precipitation in China also showed an increasing trend.

From 1961 to 2021, the average annual precipitation in China registered an average increase of 5.5 millimeters every 10 years.