China promotes greener industry

China will promote clean industrial production in 2015 by encouraging green technology and more economic use of resources to protect the environment, authorities said on Wednesday.

The central government will initiate a program that aims to reduce pollution, cleanse industries and prompt sustainable development this year, according to a statement published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Companies will consume four million fewer tonnes of coal by the end of 2015 after the ministry helps them with technological upgrades, it said.

Coal supplies the majority of China's energy consumption, accounting for 66 percent in 2014. But its significance is falling as the country has started to encourage the use of clean energy.

Emission cuts including 70,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide, 60,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides, 40,000 tonnes of industrial fumes and 20,000 volatile organic compounds will be realized in the year, according to the MIIT.

The program is partly prompted by worsening smog in China in recent years, triggering appeals for stronger measures to clean the environment.

The authority will prioritize aid to factories in Beijing and neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, as well as those in the Yangtze River delta industrial zone. Those areas have been the worst effected by smog.

A mechanism to coordinate industrial resource use in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei will be built, the statement said.

In addition, the authority promised to set up a platform to track energy use by more than 2,000 major industrial consumers nationwide. Endi