China`s plan to cut air pollution

Beijing: China aims to cut down its coal consumption to under 65 percent of its overall primary energy use by 2017 in a government action plan to cut down on air pollution.

Several initiatives have been envisaged in the action plan, unveiled Thursday, as part of the country`s efforts to readjust its energy structure and increase clean energy supply, Xinhua reported citing the central government`s website. New projects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and both the Yangtze Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions will be banned from setting up their own coal-fired power plants. By 2017, the total capacity of China`s nuclear power reactors in operation will reach 50 million kilowatts, and the share of non-fossil fuel energy will be raised to 13 percent in overall primary energy use. Under the plan, the country is also eyeing a roughly 20-percent cut in energy consumption per unit of industrial value added by 2017, as compared to 2012. The government said combined heat and power plants would gradually replace decentralised coal-fired boilers in industry clusters of chemical engineering, papermaking, dyeing and tanning for the sake of emissions cuts. The action plan also calls for technological upgrades at refinery enterprises to improve the quality of fuel oil, which affects vehicle emissions. The government claims it also aims to clear heavy-polluting `yellow-label` vehicles from roads across the country by 2017. IANS