China to gradually enhance its ability to control methane emissions: envoy

China will gradually enhance its ability to control methane emissions, Xie Zhenhua, special representative for Chinese President Xi Jinping and China's special envoy for climate change, said on Tuesday.

Xie made the remarks here when attending a high-level event, "It's Time to Sprint: Targeting Methane Emissions," organized by the World Bank, a side event of the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

He said that China attaches great importance to methane emissions control, carrying out a series of measures in the coal, petroleum and natural gas, agriculture and waste disposal sectors.

Meanwhile, he added that China has promoted the use of market mechanisms to encourage enterprises to control methane emissions.

"China is willing to strengthen communications and exchanges with other countries for cooperation in policymaking, innovation, and technology application of methane emission control, and make joint contributions to tackling global climate change," he said.

COP27 is being held in Egypt's coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh and runs until Nov. 18.