THE government 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 yesterday.

Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of ecology and environment, told reporters that the two northern provinces have been chosen as a key target in the country’s anti-smog efforts over the 2018-2020 period.

Around 90 percent of the two provinces’ energy needs are met by coal, and emissions of hazardous breathable particles known as PM2.5 are second only to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, he said.

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

China last year completed a groundbreaking action plan aimed at curbing pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei as well as the Yangtze and Pearl River Delta manufacturing hubs. It is about to publish a new program covering the 2018-2020 period.

Zhao said the Pearl River Delta, which includes Shenzhen, will not be covered in the new plan, with the region one of the few to reach the interim State PM2.5 standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter last year.

He said another target zone over the 2018-2020 period would be Xinjiang, a rising coal producer where PM2.5 concentrations have continued to increase.

Zhao said the country would continue to focus on PM2.5 until the end of the decade.

(SD-Agencies)