China publishes national plan for climate change

China published its first national plan for tackling climate change on Monday. The plan, which outlines the country's policies on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, states that the country will strive to make significant achievements in controlling greenhouse gas emissions, but underlines that its top priority is ensuring sustained economic development.

According to the newly published guidelines, China aims to keep the emission levels of powerful greenhouse gases at the 2005 levels in 2010. This it hopes to accomplish through increased use of hydro and nuclear power, wind and biomass energy and improving the efficiency of coal-burning stations.

The plan also projects that overall energy efficiency in China will improve by 20 percent before the end of the decade.

China is one of the signatories of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, but under the current treaty developing countries are not required to set mandatory goals for reducing carbon emissions. The situation will, however, be likely to change at the next follow-up talks. The current agreement is valid until 2012.

The measures outlined in the plan also include stepping up research, deploying new energy-saving technologies and planting more trees.