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Largely because of coal burning, China is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States.

The country lacks the money and technology to switch to cleaner alternatives to coal which supplies two-thirds of the country's energy but it is only a matter of time that it moves to cleaner energies, Qin said.

"Our goal is to optimize the energy structure and use cleaner energies to the maximum extent," he said.

Qin said his agency had advised the central government to increase inputs for climate change research and also provided technological support for the government to take countermeasures.

The official said his agency has stepped up research on using wind and solar resources for alternative energies.

China has set an ambitious target of reducing energy consumption by 20 percent during the years leading up to 2010.

Energy use began to drop in the third quarter of last year, the first time in three years, and is a "positive signal" that China's efforts have begun to pay off, Xinhua quoted Xie Fuzhan, chief of the National Bureau of Statistics, as saying two weeks ago.

At a separate press conference held yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China is willing to cooperate with the international community in coping with climate change.

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