A Chinese environmental expert has said that China's draft energy policy focuses on securing resources for the future more than slowing harmful greenhouse emissions.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Zou Ji, who retired as China's international climate change negotiator last year, said "There is a stronger sense of energy security than climate change."

Li Junfeng, a senior Chinese policy maker on energy issues, said that China is expected to complete a comprehensive energy policy next year. In the meantime, the emphasis is on securing an energy supply "where you can plant your foot on it."

That means securing supplies that come from China, which is the third largest coal producer in the world.

While coal, a relatively dirty fuel to burn, is in abundance, China flipped from an oil exporting country to an oil importing country in the early 1990s.

It has also been reported that since then, China's demand for oil has increased sharply, but its production has remained stagnant.

The Times further said that through the same decades, China has emerged as the world's largest producer of wind turbines and solar panels and invested twice as much in renewable energy in 2009 as the United States. (With Inputs from Agencies)