Sustainable development of energy sources is a priority of Chinese Government, said Qu Geping, chairman of China Environmental Protection Foundation at the World Petroleum Congress First Youth Forum in Beijing Monday.

Along with an annual GDP growth rate of 9 percent in the last 20 years, China also saw a soaring energy demand and deteriorating environment.

According to Qu, in 2003 moderate or serious air pollution affected 59 percent of the cities monitored in China. By late 2003,30 percent of China's territory has been affected by acid rain and30 percent of water resources has been contaminated.

"China has taken strong measures to restrict energy-guzzling, pollution-generating companies and published a series of environmental protection criteria for enterprises. In the past five years, China has closed 84,000 companies failing to meet the standards," Qu said.

In addition, new energy sources such as water power, wind power, solar energy and biomass have big potential for use in China. But now, these sources account for less than one percent in China's current energy use, Qu said.

As the largest coal consumer in the world, China depends on coal for 70 percent of its energy. In the next 30 to 50 years, China will continue to rely on coal for 50 percent of the country's total energy consumption, Qu said.

"China will raise the proportion of natural gas in energy sources consumption, reduce the quantity of polluters generated by coal, and popularize the coal-cleaning technologies."

China has issued more than 20 laws and regulations to protect the environment since 1990s.

Source: Xinhua