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Beijing is working toward of the goal of being an energy-saving, clean and beautiful international metropolis.
As one of the few coal-consuming capitals in the world, Beijing burned 27 million tons of coal in 2000. Coal consumption has been proved to be the major cause of pollution in the city, Guo Junqing,deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Development Planning Committee, told an on-going international seminar on energy and the environment here recently.
The city plans to cut coal consumption to less than 15 million tons by 2008. The amount to be used in the urban districts will be no more than 8.5 million tons, he said.
Priority will be given to the development of clean energy, such as electric power and natural gas, which will constitute 80 percent of the energy consumed in Beijing by 2008, Guo said.
The 3,000-year-old city has been suffering from a deteriorating environment since the early 1990s as a result of urban expansion and a population explosion.
To tackle the problem, the Beijing municipal government has taken a number of measures since the late 1990s, including controlling air pollution, reducing coal consumption, applying stringent auto-emission rules and increasing green space, to improve the air quality.