China’s rush to dump coal for gas is modified to avoid repeat of winter heating crisis
Measures include signing gas supply contracts before switching from coal, after some villages were left without heating last winter
China will make sure it has enough natural gas before forcing more residents to stop using coal for heating this winter, state media said on Wednesday, to try to avoid a repeat of the shortages that hit parts of the country’s north last year.
To meet its tough air quality targets for 2017, China launched a campaign last October aimed at curbing industrial output, restricting traffic and cutting coal use in 28 northern cities known for their heavy smog.
But as authorities throughout the region rushed to convert coal-fired heating boilers to cleaner-burning but scarcer natural gas, some villages lacking supplies and infrastructure were left without heating during the freezing winter.
Officials were subsequently accused of adopting an overzealous “one size fits all” approach to battling smog, and the government promised to learn from its mistakes.
The Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily reported China’s vice-minister of finance Liu Wei as saying that future attempts to convert coal-fired boilers to natural gas must secure a “matching supply source” before proceeding.
Cities must sign winter supply contracts before going ahead this year, and must also strictly control the construction of new industrial gas-consuming projects and improve storage facilities, the paper said, citing a recent cross-ministerial meeting to prepare for the coming winter’s anti-smog efforts.