China to shut small-scale coal burning in two northern provinces by 2020

Thomson Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will shut down small-scale "scattered" coal burning in the heavily coal-dependent provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi by 2020 in the next stage of its war on pollution, a senior environmental official said at a briefing on Wednesday.

Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of ecology and environment, told reporters that the two provinces have been chosen as a key target in the country's anti-smog efforts over the 2018-2020 period, with coal dependence at 90 percent and total emissions second only to the Beijing-Tianjin Hebei region.

After forcing industrial-scale coal users like power plants and steel mills to install technologies designed to curb emissions, China has been shifting focus towards what it calls "scattered" pollution sources, including backstreet workshops.

(Reporting by Aizhu Chen; Writing by David Stanway; Editing by Joseph Radford)

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