coal bed methane in china

As the article below states, "China is going to have an emphasis on the use of coal bed methane."

China’s answer to global warming


BEIJING, June 5: China yesterday unveiled a landmark policy document, which promises to integrate climate change measures into its industrial and energy sectors and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
China will become the world’s top emitter of CO2 any day now and the National Climate Change Programme is a significant document, to avert that.
Within its 62 pages, it pledges to restructure the economy, promote clean technologies and improve energy efficiency. However, Beijing has no intention of sacrificing economic growth to satisfy international demands to combat global warming, the report warns.
The plan vows to combat global warming through energy saving, agricultural adaptation, and forest expansion. It promises to “integrate climate change policy into other interrelated policies”. There will be greater use of hydropower, wind and biomass energy, an emphasis on the use of coal-bed methane and nuclear power and greater efficiency of coal-burning stations.
The policy document also comes out fighting against critics, including the International Energy Agency, which say China is a threat to the global environment. “The absence of any quantified targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions does not mean China isn’t serious about reducing GHG emissions,” said Ma Kai, the minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, the government body which steers climate policy. China’s top economic planner was speaking to a news conference in Beijing two days before President Hu Jintao was due to fly to Germany for a G8 meeting. Global warming will top the agenda there.
Mr Ma said. “I don’t see how China can be labelled a menace. Compared to the industrialised countries, until recently China had low greenhouse gas emissions and its emissions are still relatively low in per capita terms. Rises in gross domestic product in China produce smaller hikes in carbon dioxide discharges than in other countries.
This kind of talk is grossly unfair,” Mr Ma said. Also, a one-percent rise in GDP leads to an average 0.6 percent increase in carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, but the Chinese figure is only 0.38 percent. In 2004, China’s per capita carbon dioxide emission was 3.65 tons, as compared to a world average of 4.20 tons and an average of 10.95 tons for the Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Mr Achim Steiner, said his organisation welcomed China’s pledge and called on the world’s richest nations to help to reduce carbon emissions.
The Independent