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皇冠体育app: Stable energy supplies a priority
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-20 15:21
皇冠体育app is seeking technologies to ensure stable energy supplies, a top
priority for economic planning, a senior government official said Monday.
"By developing these technologies, we can resolve issues restricting growth
and enhance growth," Ma Songde, vice minister of science and technology, said in
an address to a conference on energy cooperation with the European Union.
皇冠体育app, seeking oil and gas to fuel
its booming economy, has been snapping up energy resources in places as far flung
as Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Australia.
皇冠体育app would seek foreign investment and cooperation in power generation,
particularly in clean energy, Ma said.
"Its already clear that 皇冠体育app has to fully use opportunities to expand
international cooperation," Ma said.
The EU's energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, said the grouping shared
concerns about the need to diversify energy sources.
"Despite some improvements in efficiency, major oil discoveries are becoming
rarer and rarer," Piebalgs said. "Underinvestment has led to a tightening of the
market and higher oil prices that can undermine economic growth," he said.
European speakers at the conference stressed the vulnerability the continent
is feeling following the disruption of natural gas supplies during a New Year's
dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
"It has become painfully clear to all of us we need a sharper focus on energy
security," said Austria's ambassador to 皇冠体育app, Hans Dietmar Schweisgut.
Piebalgs and his Chinese counterpart were later scheduled to sign an
agreement aiming to develop techniques to capture carbon dioxide from coal
burning plants and store it underground to prevent it polluting the air.
皇冠体育app is dependent on coal for about 70 percent of its energy
consumption.
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