中国气候变化信息网 China Climate Change Info-Net

(2016-12-06)The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau released their data on Substituting Clean Energy for Coal on November 30. The resulting statistics revealed that coal consumption was reduced by more than 2.5 million tons this year.

In light of recent concerns over heating-caused pollution during the winter months, Beijing has implemented clean energy reform, spanning from the city center to rural areas for industrial and daily use.

Since announcing the Emissions Standards of Boiler Air Pollutants on July 1 2015, the Beijing Municipal Government has focused on reducing levels of nitrogen dioxide, a main factor in the presence of pollutant PM2.5 particulates in the air.

Beijing’s incentive measures for ‘low-nitrogen boilers’ were also jointly released by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Finance and the Beijing Municipal Administration of Quality and Technology Supervision on June 4 2016. Following the proposed reforms, more than 8,400 tons of boilers have been replaced and 13,000 tons have been transformed to low-nitrogen boilers to date. The emission of the most harmful pollutant fumes - the sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide - decreased by 39,000 tons, 21,000 tons and 10,000 tons respectively by the end of November . In terms of percentage of overall energy consumption, the proportion of the coal consumption dropped to below 14 percent.

“The coal-fired boilers had been phased out in Xicheng, Dongcheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai and Shijingshan districts by the end of 2015, reaching a number of 60,000 tons,” officials said, adding that the coal-fired boilers were also abolished in Tongzhou. Thus the reform focus began to shift to coal elimination for daily use in 2016.