BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) – China will continue to promote clean energy heating this year, especially in the north, as impressive results have been seen after a year of work since 2017, according to experts at the 2018 Clean Energy Heating Summit held in Beijing on Tuesday.
Official data shows that last year, a total of 3.943 million households in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the surrounding areas managed to replace coal with either electricity or natural gas for heating, 795,000 more than the planned coverage for the year.
Many cities within the region have actively responded to the nation’s call for replacing coal with electricity and natural gas, and this is the main reason why the result was beyond expectations, said Chai Fahe, former deputy head of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.
In 2018, efforts need to be made in accelerating adjustment on industrial structure, energy mix, as well as transportation structure, Chai added.
Pollutants from burning coal for heating are the major source of air pollution in winter across northern China, thus reducing scattered coal burning and promoting clean energy utilization are considered important approaches to tackle the issue.
Clean energy heating not only helps eradicate haze, a major form of pollution in northern China, but also plays a significant role in improving residents’ way of life in rural areas, said Jiang Yi, professor at Tsinghua University and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
In northern China, around 90 percent of rural households burn scattered coal for heating, which makes the promotion of clean energy heating in rural areas difficult to proceed, according to the Report on Clean Energy Heating in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and Surrounding Areas released by China Economic Information Service at the Summit.
This year, the government will shift its focus from urban areas to rural areas in northern China, Chai said.
Currently, Beijing has achieved coal-free heating for 900,000 rural households, and is planning to promote it to another 450 villages in 2018, said an official from Beijing Municipal Commission of Rural Affairs.
Local governments should explore appropriate approaches to transforming heating systems that are in line with specific environmental goals, resource endowment, burden-bearing capability of local residents and the like, according to the report.
The report also suggests that efforts should be further made to boost supply of natural gas, electricity and other clean energies so as to pave the way for transforming heating systems.
The 2018 Clean Energy Heating Summit, jointly held by China Economic Information Service, China District Heating Association and China Energy Conservation Association, aims to push forward clean energy heating by pooling wisdom from various parties and building an information sharing platform. (Contributed by Wang Haijun, Zhou Yuran)
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