China Is Stepping up Efforts to Eliminate Coal Usage

Beijing is well on its way to a future powered by clean energy as the city's municipal development and reform commission announced on Tuesday that there will be almost no coal consumption in Beijing's plain areas by 202o.

This latest thrust in the Chinese effort to fight air pollution will all but eliminate coal use in the southern plain areas and six downtown districts of the Chinese capital city. Almost all coal use in the downtown areas will be replaced by clean energy, electricity, and gas, with all coal-fired boilers used for heating and industrial purposes converted to clean-energy alternatives.

The commission added that the city's gross coal consumption will be capped at 5 million tonnes by 2020. Its total energy consumption will be limited to the equivalent of 76 million tonnes of standard coal by that year, which would be an average yearly consumption increase of 2.1 percent.

With these changes in place, renewable energy should account for more than 8 percent of Beijing's total energy consumption by 2020, while the proportion of high-quality energy consumption is projected to exceed 95 percent. It's just the latest measure in China's aggressive war against pollution, which is designed to save lives as well as prevent the destruction of the environment.