China is willing to work with other countries to boost hydrogen-based energy production, a senior official from Ministry of Science and Te chnology (MST) said. 

"China welcomes any type of co-operation in the fields of standard and code, fundamental research -- direct coal-to-hydrogen process in particular -- and demonstration of commercialization,"" said Shi Dinghuan, MST's secretary general at the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) Steering Committee in Beijing Thursday. 

"Only through close co-operation in the sector can we reduce the cost on development of the new clean energy and avoid duplicated development and research risks," Shi added. 

IPHE was formed last November to organize and implement efforts to develop safe and commercially competitive production, storage, transport and use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The aim is to develop a hydrogen economy and a sustainable energy supply. 

The group will give priority to hydrogen production and storage, fuel cells, safety codes and standards, socio-economic research, infrastructure research, technology demonstration and evaluation and definition of international lighthouse projects. 

Meanwhile, experts say China's own energy development will be confronted with five major challenges in the coming decades, they include: 

L high oil import dependency which threatens the nation's energy security; 

L using coal as the main energy generator, which leads to severe pollution; 

L gigantic energy demands due to growing economic development; 

L global climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions, 

L energy supply and consumption problems in rural areas. 

However, developing a new type of energy will require the concerted efforts of the international community since any individual country can't afford to complete the arduous task, said Dr Xiao Yunhan of Institute of Engineering Thermophysics in Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

He said statistics have shown that, by 2030, the world will face a severe exhaustion of oil resources and the impact of energy shortages on human development will far outstrip that of the SARS epidemic. 

"We must take precautions against the challenge of energy exhaustion and developing hydrogen-based energy is a good option," said Xiao, who is also the secretary and expert of National Clean Energy Action Project, during an interview with China Daily. 

On Wednesday, the Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation under the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Beijing-based Tsinghua University to jointly develop codes and standards on safety, infrastructure and testing of fuel cells and hydrogen industry. 

Another MOU was also inked on the same day between Canada's Westport Innovation, Inc and Tsinghua University on collaboratively developing and demonstrating hydrogen-powered buses. 

Canada will promote the co-operation with China in the field of clean development mechanisms , especially the hydrogen fuel cell technology, said Michael Raymont, the visiting president of NRC told a recent press conference in Beijing. 

A total of 14 hydrogen fuel cell companies from Canada attended the 2004 Hyforum --which closes today -- to discuss with Chinese officials how to work together in the business and research fields in the coming years. 

Besides Canada, Germany, the United States and some other European countries also work with China in the development of hydrogen energy. 

The members of the IPHE are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Republic of Korea, Japan, Norway, Russia, United Kingdom, the United States and European Commission.