Abandoned oil fields in Bohai Bay or the southern marine areas may be used to store carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere in a Sino-European project to reduce greenhouse gases.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Janez Potocnik the European Commissioner in Charge of Research, said the Near Zero Emissions Coal Project, launched by the governments of China and EU countries in 2006, is now almost at the end of the first phase of research and moving toward the second and third phases of preparation and implementation. It aims to build a coal power plant that emits almost no carbon dioxide by 2015.

The carbon dioxide it emits will be captured and stored underground.