China to cut coal use, curb steel under action plan to fight pollution
Government also targets 2 million electric car sales a year by 2020 and expands anti-smog campaign to 82 cities
China will cut coal consumption, boost electric vehicle sales and shut more outdated steel and coke capacity in the coming three years, the State Council said in a long-awaited 2018 to 2020 pollution action plan published on Tuesday.
China is in the fifth year of a “war on pollution” aimed at reversing the damage done to the country’s environment since the economy was opened up in 1978, with President Xi Jinping promising to use the full might of the ruling Communist Party to meet the country’s goals.
The new action plan, released on the country’s official government website, will expand the fight to 82 cities across China, and confirmed that the major coal-producing provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi have been added to the list of “key” pollution control regions.
The new plan will also cover the heavily industrialised province of Henan in central China, as well as the Yangtze River Delta, which includes the provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and the region around Shanghai.
The document said the regions of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and Henan will be required to cut coal consumption by 10 per cent over the 2016 to 2020 period, while the Yangtze delta region will have to cut coal use by 5 per cent over the period.