By He Kuada

China's Environmental Protection Ministry today announced a sweeping new initiative to combat climate change.

"We have drawn up a ten-year plan to turn the Chinese landscape white in order to reflect heat back into space," a Ministry spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman told journalists that researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences had calculated that turning the predominant color of the Chinese landscape white, would be equivalent to removing 10,000 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.

As a developing country largely dependent on coal and oil to fuel economic growth, China inevitably contributes to CO2 emissions, but as the most populous country in the world, China also has to accept its share of responsibility to act on the key issue of our time, the spokeswoman said.

As a first step, the roofs of all government buildings will be painted white, and generous subsidies will be offered to private individuals and firms to follow suit.

"We are confident people will act on government advice. China has long experience of mobilizing its people for the benefit of the country," said the Ministry spokeswoman, adding "we have had an encouraging level of buy-in from the private sector."

A new form of tarmac, still at an experimental stage, will be gradually applied across China to turn the country's road surfaces white.

In another move all government employees will be obliged to wear white clothing and hats. But the ministry spokeswoman denied the uniforms would resemble Chairman Mao suits.

"That was then, this is now," she said. "We have consulted several foreign fashion experts, including world-famous French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, and we are convinced we have come up with something that people will find both convenient and stylish."

People will be allowed to change into colored clothes while indoors, she added.

"We accept that some of the variety and color of modern life will be lost as a result of the campaign, but this is a planetary emergency."