French electric automation company Schneider Electric SA and energy management company Dalkia have signed a strategic agreement to jointly develop the energy efficiency market in China to take advantage of the country's ambitious plan to fight pollution, the two companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The agreement includes pooling of the companies' expertise and know-how in China's construction sector, an emerging market that offers considerable potential for growth, innovation and economic and environmental performance, according to the statement.

The partnership came after the Chinese government rolled out an ambitious program to reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency in its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).

The program includes construction of a billion square meters of low-energy consumption buildings, "green buildings", with an overall budget of about 300 billion euros ($404 billion).

"The building sector is currently one of the world's biggest consumers of energy and one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases,'' said Franck Marteau, sales director at Schneider Electric.

"As a global specialist in energy management, it was a logical step for Schneider Electric to team up with Dalkia to offer Chinese clients solutions to help them consume less and better."

The partnership will also enable Dalkia to speed up the development of its energy performance contracts in cooperation with Schneider Electric and expand its presence in China's building energy efficiency market.

"Dalkia wants to step up its growth in China in the building energy efficiency market, which is currently emerging. By linking up with Schneider Electric, we are going be able to offer more clients effective solutions more rapidly based on the know-how and brand recognition of our two companies," said Marie Mugler, vice-president of Dalkia in charge of strategy and development.

Dalkia, a subsidiary of French environmental service company Veolia Environment and French power group EDF, has been operating in China for more than 10 years in the heating and cooling markets.