BEIJING — Greenpeace said Friday that China "urgently" needed to reduce its dependency on coal, saying the emissions produced by its use posed a major threat to public health in the fast-growing Asian nation.

"If China cannot swiftly reverse this dependency on coal and other fossil fuels in the near future... then it will be unable to solve the grave problem of air pollution threatening people's health," the environmental group said.
"China urgently needs to pursue a low-carbon sustainable development model," it added in a report released with the nation's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

The world's second-largest economy -- which overtook Japan in the second quarter -- relies on coal for 70 percent of its fast-growing energy needs, and coal combustion has become one of the nation's main sources of air pollution.