China, with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) started an environmental project yesterday to explore opportunities in the nation for the institution of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the energy sector.

The project, which involves US$775,000 in ADB technical assistance, is also aimed at developing a set of national guidelines for identifying and developing eligible CDM projects in China.

CDM is one of the programmes defined in the Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The convention, which went into effect in March 1994, is intended to control global warming, which has the potential to harm economic development and people's lives.

CDM encourages industrialized countries to help developing nations eliminate the proliferation of greenhouse gases so that economic growth can be achieved without harming the environment.

China began to discuss the introduction of CDM in 1997 with the World Bank and the governments of Switzerland and Germany.

Jia Jingdun, an official from the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the present one-year project will help China's energy sector slash greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide.

"This will minimize the negative influences of global climate change," Jia said at yesterday's inauguration ceremony for the project.

The Ministry of Science and Technology will do its best to ensure cost-effective implementation of CDM in China, said Jia.

A special group consisting of experts from the prestigious Tsinghua University and the US-based International Resources Group has been set up to carry out the clean development project.

Jia also hopes the project will help improve energy efficiency.

"We also need to make efforts to save energy, as energy consumption in the country is wasteful," Jia said.

At present, the world average consumption of oil for every US$10,000 of gross domestic production is 2.81 tons, official statistic showed. The figure for the United States is 2.78 tons and for Japan, 0.96 tons. The consumption figure for China is 10.67 tons and for Russia, 17 tons.

Matthew Mendis, an official from the US International Resources Group, said China's western regions will be the project's priority target.

In Gansu Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, four small-scale renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects will be implemented during the 12-month project, said Mendis.

So far, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the Canadian Government have joined in China's CDM feasibility study.