CHINA will expand its bans on coal burning to include suburban areas as well as city centers in efforts to tackle air pollution, the top energy agency said Tuesday.

    Detailing its clean coal action plan 2015-2020, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said it would promote centralized heating and power supply by natural gas and renewables, replacing scattered heat and power engines fuelled by low quality coal.

    The world’s biggest coal consumer will ban sale and burning of high-ash and high-sulphur coal in the worst affected regions including city clusters surrounding Beijing.

    Beijing ordered a ban last year against coal burning in its six central districts from 2020.

    Under the action plan, coal-fired industrial boilers will all shift to burn natural gas or clean coal by 2020 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city clusters, Pearl River delta and Yangtze River delta area, the NEA said.

    China has around 600,000 industrial boilers fuelled by coal, most of them are in residential areas in northern China.

    The government will offer subsidies for clean fuels, it said, without giving details. (SD-Agencies)