Beijing, China (CNN) -- Mountains of peanut shells are spread out across Shengchang Bioenergy's property on the outskirts of Beijing. Local farmers drive in and out, unloading dried corn stalks in exchange for a small fee.

The company says the stoves are up to five times more energy efficient than traditional coal boilers and are slightly cheaper to operate.

The Shengchang boilers are one small-scale example of how China can make a large-scale transition to becoming a low-carbon economy. China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, relies on dirty coal for 70 percent of its energy.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) -- China's top economic planner -- has pledged to cut carbon intensity 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. "China will not repeat traditional path of growth of developed nations of high emissions, high energy consumption and high pollution," Xie said.

Chinese leadership is very clear that China has to improve its environmental performance," said Bjorn Stigson, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Stigson was among a team of experts recently invited by the Chinese government to develop a plan to help transform China's energy-intensive economy. He personally met with Premier Wen Jiabao, who will represent China at Copenhagen.

In a November 2009 report entitled "China's Pathway Towards a Low Carbon Economy," Stigson outlined various steps China could take to "go green," including low-carbon industrialization, developing renewable energies and educating residents about how to live sustainably.

Stigson also indicated that China's rapid development gave the Asian giant the potential to implement green technology more quickly, perhaps bypassing the high polluting growth model of Western countries.

"Because China is building so much new capacity, China can leapfrog with solutions," Stigson said. According to state-run news agency Xinhua, 80,000 households in downtown Beijing have done away with coal heating this winter, the Beijing Electric Power Company said.

The courtyards homes located in a historic section of Beijing have replaced the polluting coal stoves with electric heaters, a culmination of a seven-year program to eliminate coal heating in 160,000 homes in downtown Beijing, Xinhua reported.

Shengchang Bioenergy has manufactured 12,000 stoves since opening in 2006. "It is understandable ... that China has gone through this focus on economic growth," Stigson said. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/06/china.alternative.energy.coal/index.html