Coal generally represented less than half of the energy consumption in most Western countries, while about 70 percent of China's electricity needs were supplied by coal-fired power plants, Jiang told Xinhua in Beijing.

The potential role of CCS technology was boosted by the fact that China lacked the diverse energy portfolio found in countries like the United States, where natural gas was also plentiful, Jiang said.

CCS technology has the potential to bring about a 90-percent reduction in emissions from power stations and other industrial sources of carbon dioxide, a special report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in 2005.

The process of CCS involves separating carbon dioxide from other gases in an exhaust stream, transporting it to a suitable site and storing it safely, potentially for millions of years.

As power plants that burn fossil fuels represent the main source of carbon emissions, which are predicted to reach 34.3 billion tonnes by 2015, many experts believe CCS will prove crucial in slowing the pace.

This August saw a significant move by China as the state-owned Shenhua Coal Liquefaction and Chemical Company started to build China's first CCS industrial model program in Erdos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

However, as CCS was one of the most advanced clean technologies, China had a lot to learn from developed countries such as the United States and the UK, and international cooperation should be stepped up in searching for ways to reduce the cost of CCS and better utilize the stored carbon, said Jiang.

In May 2009, the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a statement on its website that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Energy Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to push research and development efforts in CCS technology.

In discussions between Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and U.S. counterpart Gary Lock in Beijing in May, clean technologies, including CCS, were recognized as a key area where cooperation should be strengthened between the two countries.

Participants at the ceremony, titled Keeping the Engine-Room Clean: CCS in China, also included senior researchers from the Coal Chemistry Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Research Institute of Petroleum & Development (RIPED) of PetroChina, and other academic institutes.

"We are always looking to establish strong, collaborative partnerships with Chinese universities and research institutes," said Stephenson.