BEIJING (AP) – Yale University, already in China helping to reform the legal system and conducting scientific research, wants to expand its reach with projects to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, the school’s president said Wednesday.

“China’s going to build hundreds of new cities in the next 25 to 50 years because of the migration from countryside to city and it’s going to make a big difference for the world whether those cities are dense and dependent on public transportation or whether they’re sprawling and dependent on automobiles,” Richard Levin said.

Yale already has a program with Tsinghua University in Beijing to train Chinese mayors and deputy mayors on environmental issues. Mr. Levin said the school wants more opportunities like that in China, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after America.

“We’re looking for ways we can be constructive and create opportunities for our students and faculty to work on environmental problems in China,” he said.

The university in New Haven, Conn., has taken steps to be more environmentally friendly, adopting an ambitious plan to trim greenhouse gas emissions at its campus to 10 percent below the 1990 level by 2020.

China is facing increasing international pressure as its economy expands – with double-digit growth in recent years – and as it pumps increasing amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Scientists have warned that unabated greenhouse gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as 11 degrees by 2100.

Yale’s relationship with China dates to 1854, when Yung Wing became the first Chinese citizen to graduate from an American university. The school now has more than 80 academic collaborations in China, as well as 26 study sites in the country.

“Our interests have strengthened in the last 28 years since the opening of China again, once (former Chinese leader) Deng Xiaoping allowed Chinese students to travel abroad and study in America, which as you know was cut off for 30 years,” Levin said.

Yale’s projects include the China Law Center, which aims to help reform China’s traditionally arbitrary legal system to better meet the demands of modern capitalism. Additionally, two Yale scientists have outsourced their research needs to labs at Fudan University in Shanghai and Peking University in Beijing.

One professor is developing disease-resistant rice, while the other is working on a technique that allows scientists to determine the effects of a single gene more quickly and inexpensively, Levin said.

“They can have 150-person laboratories as opposed to 30-person laboratories, which is about all you can afford in the U.S.,” said Mr, Levin. But because the professors did their undergraduate studies at the two Chinese universities, “this is not like a call center in India or something because these relationships developed through personal connections.”

Mr, Levin was in China for the ninth time in six years, leading a group of 100 students, faculty and administrators at the invitation of President Hu Jintao. The Chinese leader spoke at Yale’s campus last year.

“I think it’s all very valuable for our students to get exposure to China at this state in history,” Mr. Levin said.