Although they say things are improving, residents of this city in northern Shanxi province live in one of the most polluted places on Earth thanks to China's reliance on coal, a dependence expected to continue for decades.

"Everyone here hates the pollution. It's better than before... but it is hard to imagine it being worse than just a few years ago," said Qi Bao, who owns a computer shop in Linfen, a city of 3.3 million once rated the most polluted in the world.

"A lot of people here believe that a really strong agreement in Copenhagen will help Linfen fight pollution... but this is something for our government to decide -- ordinary people in China have little say in these matters."

China went to the climate change talks in Copenhagen promising to brake runaway growth in its world-leading carbon emissions. But provinces like Shanxi show how difficult that task will be given pressure for economic growth.

Shanxi is China's coal heartland, the biggest producer of a fossil fuel that provides 70 percent of the Asian nation's fast-growing energy needs and home to many coal-burning power plants spewing greenhouse gases.

Efforts are under way to clean up, but political and economic realities tie Linfen and China's future to greater coal output.

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

"We must never relinquish the priority task of our government to uphold fast-paced development," Luo Qingyu, head of Linfen prefecture, said in his annual report in May.

"We must quicken the pace of resuming production and inspections at coal mines and... guarantee the supply of resources to the coking, metallurgical and energy industries."

Experts estimate this means China's carbon emissions will nearly double by 2020. But for this impoverished region the resulting jobs and revenue come at the cost of choking lungs and ecological devastation.

A sooty blanket of smog hangs over Linfen, cutting visibility to mere metres (yards) at times, stinging the eyes and throat, and leaving a black film on one's face and hands.

Gauze face masks are de rigueur for residents and local highways and airports are routinely shut down due to poor visibility.

In 2006, the New York-based non-profit environmental assessment group the Blacksmith Institute rated Linfen's air pollution the worst in the world. It slipped to number two in the last such global assessment, in 2007.

"The people of Linfen are dramatically affected by the pollutants spewed into the air by the mining and manufacturing facilities," the Blacksmith report said.

"Doctors are seeing increasing cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, and lung cancer, all as a result of the heavy air pollution. Cancer rates are also high."

But the message is getting through.

After a spate of fatal mine accidents and the bad publicity from the Blacksmith report, Linfen officials closed nearly 3,700 small mines while shuttering scores of dirty polluting factories and furnaces.

Deborah Seligsohn, a Beijing-based energy expert with the World Resources Institute, said China was now "an emerging leader in clean-coal technologies".

"It has built more high-efficiency coal-fired power plants than any country," she said.

Such plants dot Linfen, she told AFP, and more are planned to replace old and dirty furnaces in Shanxi.

"Pollution was worse a few years ago when all anyone had to do to make money was start mining coal and burning it," transport driver Wang Weimin said.

But he notes there has been an economic cost.

"Before, a miner could earn 10,000 yuan (about 1,400 dollars) per month, but now with the mining reform, all the small mines are closed and a miner can barely make half that if he's lucky," Wang said.

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