By Allison Jackson

BEIJING - More deadly accidents like the one that killed at least 104 Chinese coal miners at the weekend are inevitable as China remains reliant on coal to feed its energy-hungry economy, experts said.

As China talks up its commitment to clean energy on the eve of key climate change talks in Copenhagen, analysts warned that heavily polluting coal would remain the main source of energy here for at least the next decade.

"Coal will remain the dominant feedstock for power generation in China for the foreseeable future and is likely to still account for over 50 percent of China's installed generating capacity by 2020," said Thomas Grieder, an analyst at IHS Global Insight.

Deadly accidents are depressingly familiar in China and will remain so until the country kicks its coal "addiction", said Greenpeace China climate and energy campaign manager Ailun Yang.

"This is an example of the human cost of coal that China is bearing," Yang said, referring to a gas explosion at a mine in northeastern Heilongjiang province on Saturday that killed 104 workers and left four missing.

"For a country that needs to dig so much coal on a daily basis it is impossible to avoid these kinds of accidents," she said.

China's coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety standards often ignored in the quest for profits and the drive to meet surging demand for coal - which accounts for 70 percent of China's energy needs.

Official figures show more than 3,200 workers died in coal mines last year but independent labour groups say many more deaths are covered up.

"China has a lot of coal, has very limited supply of other fossil fuels, and even with rapid growth rates in renewables, it will be difficult to actually replace the coal in use for quite some time," said Deborah Seligsohn, a consultant with Washington-based think tank World Resources Institute.

China, which is widely believed to be the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases, has invested billions of dollars in clean energy alternatives such as wind, hydro and nuclear power to curb emissions growth.

President Hu Jintao told a September UN summit China would reduce the intensity of its carbon emissions as a percentage of economic growth by a "notable margin" by 2020 from their 2005 levels, but gave no figure.

China also set the goals of cutting energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010 and getting 10 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020.

Yet two coal-fired power plants are built every week, analysts say, to meet soaring demand for cheap energy.

"(Coal-fired power) plants can be built relatively quickly in comparison to nuclear power and renewables... and the coal industry is a major employer in China," Grieder said.

China produced 2.7 billion tonnes of coal in 2008 and was on track to exceed that amount this year, official figures show. The government has said it plans to boost output by a further 30 percent by 2015.

Valérie Niquet, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations, said Beijing regarded coal as key to China's energy "independence".

"Thanks to it (coal), the rate of energy self-sufficiency in China is 90 percent - 20 percent more than for the OECD countries," Niquet said in a report published in September, which added "in energy, coal is the basis".

In his recent visit to China, US President Barack Obama said the United States and China wanted climate change talks in Copenhagen next month to result in a global accord that has "immediate operational effect".

But any post-2012 treaty on tackling climate change could be muted by the fact that clean energy accounts for less than 13 percent of China's energy mix.

"Even with ramped up renewable production, (China) is still facing a larger existing capacity for building fossil fuel plants than renewable plants, Seligsohn said.

"That will change over time but renewables are growing rapidly from a small base."