The private company is part of a growing drive by China to work out a way to
check the rapid growth of its massive emissions of greenhouse gases. Seeking to
transform an economy heavily dependent upon coal for electric power and
industrial production, the government has closed down old cement and coal
plants, subsidized row upon row of new wind turbines and taken other measures.

Still, China has taken significant steps in the past five years. It removed subsidies for motor fuel, which now costs more than it does in the United States; its fuel-efficiency standard for new urban vehicles is 36.7 miles per gallon, a level the United States will not reach for seven years. It has set high efficiency standards for new coal plants; the United States has none. It has set new energy-efficiency standards for buildings. It has targeted its 1,000 top emitters of greenhouse gases to boost energy efficiency by 20 percent. And it has shut down many older, inefficient industrial boilers and power plants.