MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Beijing is set to ban all coal use and sales by 2020, Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau stated on its official website.
The Chinese government prohibited the production of all new coal-fired power plants in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou last September, according to the statement poseted on Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau website.
The city’s plan is to prioritize the use of electricity and natural gas, particularly in heating. The ban is in an effort to reduce China’s overall greenhouse gas emission.
The predominant use of coal had made China one of the world’s largest contributors of carbon and other dangerous gases.
Coal was used by approximately a quarter of Beijing’s population in 2012.
