OREANDA-NEWS.  February 17, 2014. According to a provincial climate change plan, China's southern Guangdong province plans large investments in natural gas and clean energy to cut coal and oil use in a bid to slow rampant growth in greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the plan posted on a government website, Guangdong, whose GDP is estimated to have surpassed USD 1 trillion in 2013, plans to cut coal's and oil's share of its energy mix to 60.6% in 2015, from 73% in 2010.

It said that reducing its dependence on coal and oil will be key to reaching the province's 2015 target of cutting carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 19.5% from 2010 levels.

Huge investments in cleaner energy sources are needed, the plan said, because there is little room left to eliminate outdated capacity in steel and iron, cement and small coal-fired plants, previously a favourite fix for Chinese officials seeking to cut pollution.

According to the plan, Guangdong's greenhouse gas emissions blamed by scientists for causing global warming rose by nearly a third from 2005 to 2010. Its emissions in 2010 stood at 580 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Guangdong said that it would more than double natural gas' share in the energy mix to 13.2% by 2015. Natural gas emits only half as much carbon as coal.

Other fuel sources, which include renewable energy, nuclear power and electricity imported from provinces in western China, were expected to rise to a 26% share in the mix by 2015, compared with 19% in 2010.