China reduced its carbon dioxide discharge by 1.8 billion tons from 1991 to 2005 as its consumption of coal was cut by 800 million tons in the period, Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological Administration, said today.

The country's coal consumption per 10,000 yuan (US$1,289.27) of the GDP dropped to 1.43 tons in 2005 from the 1990's 2.68 tons, Qin said.

China is developing low-carbon and renewable energy sources, such as hydro-energy and nuclear energy, to improve its energy structure. It is also supporting rural areas to develop cleaner energy sources, such as solar energy, terrestrial heat and wind power, Qin said.

Forests and trees the country planted absorbed 3.06 tons of carbon dioxide from 1980 to 2005, Qin said.

China's per capita discharge of carbon dioxide was 61 percent of the world's average level, although the country's total discharge volume was next only to the United States, Qin said.

The country's 11th Five Year Plan orders local energy consumption to drop 20 percent by the end of 2010, compared with 2005, he said.

The government will speed up the construction of energy-saving projects and an environmentally friendly society by developing cleaner energies, Qin said.

The country is also preparing its first plan to battle the climate change, Zou Ji, a climate policy expert said in Beijing yesterday.

Zou said the national program will probably set broad goals for coping with emissions and changing weather patterns, which is likely to be released this year after at least two years of preparatory work.

The planning effort demonstrates that China shares the deepening global alarm that greenhouse gases from factories, power plants and vehicles are lifting average temperatures and will seriously, perhaps calamitously, alter the world's climate, Zou said

(Shanghai Daily February 7, 2007)