(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-20 18:54

BEIJING - China and Britain kicked off a joint project here Tuesday to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at thermal power plants in China through carbon capture and storage technology.

The Near Zero Emissions Coal Initiative, carried out by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the British government, aims to reduce the carbon dioxide emitted by coal-fuelled projects, such as thermal power plants, to near zero by 2020, according to a press release issued by the ministry.

Under the project, the two parties will first carry out research on the feasibility of introducing carbon capture and storage technology into Chinese projects and then start a pilot project, the statement said. However it did not confirm a timetable for the project.

Carbon capture and storage technology is new and still being trialled. However, it is believed it has great potential to help slow down global warming.

The technology aims to capture carbon dioxide produced from combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas before it gets into the atmosphere and place it in secure storage deep underground.

According to present research, the technology will help thermal power plants to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide by at least 85 percent.

The technology is already being trialled in other parts of the world. In October this year the United States adopted three projects to conduct large volume tests for the storage of 1 million or more tons of carbon dioxide in deep saline reservoirs with an investment of US$197 million in ten years.

The Sino-British project is part of the measures agreed at the EU-China Summit in 2005 when the European Union and China signed a joint declaration on climate change that calls for a "partnership" to enable more cooperation and dialogue on clean energy and sustainable development.

China, the world's third largest economy and with a phenomenal annual growth which this year is expected to reach 11.3 percent, produces the world's second largest amount of carbon dioxide.

However, with the world's largest population, its CO2 emission per capita remains below the world's average level and a mere one eighth of that of the United States.

China has already signed the Kyoto Protocol which asked developed industrial countries to cut CO2 emissions by 5.2 percent of the 1990 total between 2008 and 2012.

Climate change and energy efficiency are now on the agenda at the highest level in China. Chinese President Hu Jintao said in October in his keynote speech at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that the country will give prominence to building a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society in its strategy of industrialization and modernization.

Also, this year the Chinese government set up an office on climate change and energy efficiency headed by Premier Wen Jiabao.