The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) will build an international coal gas control center in China along with Shanxi Coking Coal Group, according to a memorandum signed in Geneva on May 18.

The non-profit center, which is scheduled to run until 2018, will be committed to global coal gas control, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and improving the utilization of clean energy.

"Coal mines will continue to be a part of global energy supply. Reducing the influence of coal mining on the environment and the consequences brought to mining areas is important in the transition to sustainable energy," said Christian Friis Bach, executive secretary of UNECE.

Shanxi Coking Coal Group will implement the best methods for gas collection and utilization that experts from UNECE come up with and promote these practices globally.

As the biggest coking coal manufacturer in China, Shanxi Coking Coal Group produces raw coal of 174 million tons per year and has coal bed gas reserves of 197.5 billion cubic meters. In 2016, the company extracted 598 million cubic meters of gas and established 11 gas power plants with annual power generating capacity hitting 484 million kWh.

The partnership with UNECE will mark a new chapter for the company in the management of natural gas. The group plans to generate electrical power measuring 70 megawatts through new coal gas power stations and increase the proportion of power generated from clean energy over the coming four years, while improving mine safety and cutting down greenhouse gas emission.