China to spend billions to tackle winter smog

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China plans to spend billions of yuan over the next three years to reduce air pollution in 12 northern cities during the winter months.

Those cities, including Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan and Tianjin, are in a pilot program for winter heating with clean energy sources, as they have been frequented by smog in winter partly due to over-reliance on coal.

Shijiazhuang Railway Station in smog, Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Provinc‍e, Oct. 19, 2016. /Xinhua Photo

Local finances will contribute about 69.7 billion yuan (11 billion US dollars) to complete clean heating renovation in the next three years, Liu Wei, deputy minister of finance, said at a Friday meeting on the issue.

Financial institutions, companies and other non-government sources will spend more than 200 billion yuan (31 billion US dollars), Liu said.

The pilot program was unveiled in May, with central finance to provide between 500 million yuan (77 billion US dollars) to one billion yuan (0.15 billion US dollars) to each city.

Twelve cities in northern China are in a pilot program for winter heating with clean energy sources. /VCG Photo

The program came after this year's government work report saying that China will address pollution caused by coal, with measures including clean winter heating in the north and replacing coal with electricity and natural gas in more than three million households.

At the meeting, pilot cities were asked to seek new ways of capital input, encourage more private funds into the pilots, and coordinate the prices for electricity, natural gas and heating.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency