A Sino-Brazilian research centre in Rio de Janeiro tries to find ways to make producing energy and protecting the environment compatible, the China Global Television Network reports.

The network, an arm of the Chinese state-owned broadcaster, says the institution, the China-Brazil Center for Climate Change and Energy Innovation, links the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Tsinghua University in China.

The report says the purpose of the research centre is to facilitate exchanges between Brazilian and Chinese academics.

The centre is focusing at present on harnessing wave energy to generate electricity, with a view to wave power supplying by 2050 between 15 percent and 20 percent of the electricity Brazil produces, the China Global Television Network says.