A Chinese coal production company said yesterday it will receive US$19 million under a purchase agreement it signed with the World Bank to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

The company promised to reduce carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 4.5 million tons in two decades.

According to the agreement signed on Wednesday, Jincheng Anthracite Coal Group Co Ltd will capture coal mine methane and use it for power generation at the Sihe mine in Jincheng City in north China's Shanxi Province.

The bank said this project will improve conditions at the mine for the current employees and create 60 new jobs for re-trained miners and additional specialist staff at the power project.

The certified greenhouse gas emissions reductions generated by the project will be purchased by the Prototype Carbon Fund, a public/private partnership made up of six governments and 17 private companies. The organization has authorized the World Bank to purchase greenhouse gas emission reductions from projects on behalf of the participants of the fund.

The fund will buy 4.5 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emission reductions during the project's 20-year lifetime.

China depends on coal to meet more than 60 percent of its demand for energy. As coal mine methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in affecting global warming, coal mines are listed among the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters.

China's National Climate Change Coordination Committee has placed coal methane projects among its top four priority categories in developing projects under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol will go into effect in February 2005 to limit climate altering greenhouse gas emissions.