China’s dash for gas aims to cut back deadly winter smog
Millions of families in north of country prepare for first winter with cleaner – but more expensive – heating as authorities seek to cut back on use of coal
As freezing winds whip across northern China this winter, Yao Guanghui is happy he will have one less chore to do: feeding the coal furnace that has long heated his small house on the outskirts of Beijing.
Traipsing outside on freezing nights to haul coal for the two big burners in his kitchen was his least favourite household job.
But next month, the 60-year-old will turn on the heating with a flick of a switch on the gas-powered boiler that sits in a sooty alcove that once housed the furnaces.
“My face and nostrils would be covered with coal dust by the time I got into the kitchen,” he said on Thursday, recalling his efforts to carry coal into his two-room house during the long winter. “We hope this winter will be much cleaner and warmer.”
Yao and his family are among millions of people across northern China preparing for their first winter to be heated by gas – part of a government effort to wean the nation off dirty coal and improve the nation’s notoriously bad air.
The massive effort involves almost four million homes in 28 cities. The government is ploughing tens of billions of yuan into the project to install equipment, build thousands of kilometres of pipes and subsidise the higher costs of gas.