There’s a lot of talk among those that worry about climate change that China’ s rapid economic expansion is leading to greater energy needs, which are filled through mainly coal. The building of all these new coal plants, of course, is quite worrisome from a global warming perspective. And though the New York Times states that “China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet,” the nation is also quickly becoming the world leader in clean coal technology.

Though China still has, and builds, many inefficient coal plants, the country is building the highly efficient plants at a rate of one a month, and also requires energy companies to retire an older and more inefficient plant for every new one they build. And the Times reports tangible results.

China’s improvements are starting to have an effect on climate models. In its latest annual report last November, the International Energy Agency cut its forecast of the annual increase in Chinese emissions of global warming gases, to 3 percent from 3.2 percent, in response to technological gains, particularly in the coal sector, even as the agency raised slightly its forecast for Chinese economic growth.

Due to the aforementioned inefficient plants still online, China still trails America in average efficiency per plant, but their most efficient plants convert about 10 percent more coal into electricity than the most efficient American plants (about 44 percent to 40). As well, “It now costs as much as a third less to build an ultra-supercritical power plant in China than to build a less efficient coal-fired plant in the United States.”

It remains to be seen what the Obama administration officially decides on clean coal technology. And, of course, there’s the issue of whether clean coal even exists.