China has been one of most effective nations in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as outlined in the Tokyo Protocol, a senior environmental official said yesterday.

Since the beginning of this year, China's reduction has been more than 40 per cent of the total reduction of the 40 countries involved in the Clean Development Mechanism of the Tokyo Protocol, according to Lu Xuedu, deputy director-general of the office of global environmental affairs at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Through the Clean Development Mechanism, the total reduction in the world at the end of this year is expected to reach about 106 million Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). China is expected to reach more than 46 million CERs.

The mechanism is run on co-operative projects between developing and developed nations. As a developing country, China has 164 projects in existence or in the planning stages, with help from around the globe, according to Lu.

Of these projects, 18 are in co-operation with Japan. In a bid to better carry out the projects, a training course started yesterday for more than 50 environmental scientists and officials from 17 Chinese cities.

Leading environmental scientists from China and Japan will lecture on the guidelines of the Clean Development System, laws governing greenhouse gas emissions, and the preparation of paperwork in related projects.

The training is sponsored by the Japan International Co-operation Agency and hosted by the China 21st Century Agenda Centre under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

"The training will greatly improve the ability of local governments and their scientists to implement the international Clean Development Mechanism," said Huang Jing, deputy director of the centre.

(China Daily 12/19/2006 page2)