China’s plan to reduce use of coal for heating in northern homes still facing problems, report says
- High cost and lack of supply of alternatives like natural gas and electricity hampering Beijing’s ambitions, study suggests
- And concerns are growing that once subsidies end, poor households will return to burning coal
“The lack of natural gas supplies, power grids unable to fulfil demand and high costs in some areas have created a bottleneck for the wider introduction of the ‘two methods’,” the report said referring to the clean fuel alternatives.
The researchers looked at 3,000 households in the three northern provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Heilongjiang, all of which are involved in the conversion campaign and where temperatures regularly fall below freezing in the winter.
Wan Wei, Clean Air Asia’s China air quality programme manager, said that the conversion scheme, was reliant on government subsidies that covered the cost of any new equipment and a percentage of subsequent fuel bills. But while such funding was promised for three years, she said she was concerned what would happen when it was removed.