The 21st Century Business Herald citing a circular issued by local environmental protection bureau reported that Beijing, China’s capital is planning to reduce coal consumption to 20 million tonnes or less by 2015, in a bid to improve air quality.

Mr Wang Dawei an official from the bureau said that to realize the target, some 7 million tonnes coal consumption has to be cut.

Statistics showed that Beijing, where energy consumption is growing by 5% per year, consumed a total of 27 million tonnes standard coal in 2010. According to the bureau’s plan, during the next five years, Beijing is targeting to adopt natural gas, the clean energy, for newly built projects and not to construct or expand coal-guzzling projects.

(Sourced from en.sxcoal.com)