In recent years Chinese companies, especially large-scale state-owned enterprises, have been making great efforts in emission reduction and energy saving. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, large-scale state-owned enterprises invested RMB 87.84 billion for energy saving in 2009; compared to 2005, they reduced their comprehensive energy consumption per 10,000 yuan output value by 15.1 percent (at comparable prices), sulfur dioxide emission by 36.8 percent, and chemical oxygen demand by 33.04 percent. The figures mean that these companies have achieved the target set in China's Eleventh-five-year Plan to cut emissions by 10 percent.

As of July 14, 2010, with the implementation of a new government policy, high-energy-consuming companies in 22 provinces and cities no longer enjoy preferential prices for their electricity. The policy is designed to pressure such companies to save energy, reduce emission and protect the environment.

Green Coal-based Power Generation

At the end of 2008, electricity generated from coal accounted for a massive 75 percent of China's installed power generation capacity. The proportion is forecast to remain at 60 percent or more in 2020. The fact is that coal-fired power stations will remain China's primary source of carbon emissions for some time to come, so the development of clean technology is the route the coal-fired power industry must travel.

The technology of "green coal-based power" is based on integrated gasification combined cycles (IGCC) and carbon capture and storage (CCS). Besides generating power, it can also reclaim pollutants and sequestrate carbon dioxide for usage or storage.

Research on IGCC started in China in the late 1970s. During the Eighth Five-year Plan (1991-1995), a research team headed by the Xi'an Institute of Heat Engineering completed a feasibility study of the technology. A trial IGC power station was set up in Yantai of Shandong Province in 1999, which was listed as a key project of Agenda 21, a government white paper on China's population, environment and development in the 21st century.

In 2004, China Huaneng Group proposed the Green Coal-based Power Generation Plan. The company, with an installed capacity of over 100 million kW that represents 12 percent of China's installed capacity, planned to build a Near Zero Emissions Coal (NZEC) trial power station within 15 years. A year later, The GreenGen Company was established, co-founded by Huaneng and other energy giants including China Datang Corporation, China Huadian Corporation, China Guodian Corporation, China Power Investment Corporation, and Shenhua Group Corporation Ltd. In 2008 Beijing Thermal Power Plant set up a carbon dioxide capture system with a capacity of 120,000 tons a year. In 2009 the world's largest carbon dioxide capture system was built in a Huaneng power plant in Shanghai, with a capacity of 3,000 tons a year. In July 2009 the first IGCC trial project, a completely homegrown project developed, designed and constructed independently by China, began construction in Tianjin. It is expected to be operational in 2011.

Su Wenbin, general manager of The GreenGen Co., Ltd, explains that the target of the Green Coal-based Power Generation Plan is to research, develop and promote a fully patented coal-based energy generation system, with huge efficiency improvements that can increase efficiency, whilst producing nearly zero pollution or carbon dioxide emissions. He adds that it will be economically viable and as it becomes adopted into use it will help achieve the sustainable development of coal-fired power by providing a low-carbon resource.