China reveals air pollution battle plan

BEIJING - China has vowed to use a multi-pronged approach to tackle the country's air pollution, according to a government action plan unveiled on Thursday.

China aims to cut its total coal consumption to below 65 percent of its total primary energy use by 2017, part of the country's efforts to accelerate adjusting its energy structure and increase clean energy supply, says the plan, the full text of which is publicized on the central government's official website.

New projects set to be constructed in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and both the Yangtze Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions will be banned from setting up their own coal-fired power plants, it says.

By 2017, the total capacity of China's nuclear power reactors in operation will reach 50 million kilowatts, and the share of non-fossil fuel energy will be raised to 13 percent in overall primary energy use, it adds.

Under the plan, the country is also eyeing a roughly 20-percent cut in energy consumption per unit of industrial value added by 2017, compared to 2012.