SOME regions in China are lagging in efforts to meeting State targets to reduce coal consumption, and some are still building coal-dependent projects, the country’s State planner said late Tuesday.

    China, which depends on coal for about two-thirds of its primary energy needs, is trying to cut coal consumption to ease air pollution and control greenhouse gas emissions.

    Last year, the government urged the most polluted regions — including Beijing, Tianjin and the surrounding province of Hebei — to step up efforts to close high-emissions factories, and explicitly banned them from approving new projects in polluting sectors suffering overcapacity.

    But the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said of those regions some are behind schedule, and the country as a whole could struggle to meet overall targets.

    “The country cut coal consumption by 2.9 percent and 3.7 percent respectively in 2014 and 2015,” when no targets were set, it said. “But a small number of key regions continued to build new high coal-consuming projects and their rate of progress in meeting targets is lagging.”

    According to a separate report by the Xinhua news agency Tuesday, China met only 29 percent of its 2016 coal capacity reduction target in the first half of this year, with nine regions failing to make any substantial moves to close down mines.

    China plans to shed 250 million tons of surplus capacity this year, and around 500 million tons over the next three to five years.

    Lian Weiliang, vice chairman of the NDRC, told an annual coal trade fair earlier this month that China’s annual coal production capacity had reached 6 billion tons, putting the country’s surplus at more than 2 billion tons.

    Chinese coal production fell 3.5 percent in 2015 to 3.68 billion tons, the second consecutive annual fall. Experts have also suggested consumption levels — as well as carbon dioxide emissions — have already peaked.

    (SD-Agencies)