Beijing to Call It Quits on Coal Mining By 2020

By Justine Lopez

Coal mining has played a significant role in Beijing life for roughly 800 years. The earliest evidence of coal mining dates back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and the practice has been going strong in the hills of Beijing ever since.

But after eight centuries, Beijing has finally vowed to call it quits on coal mining by 2020, Xinhua reports. Beijing has already closed down two major coal mines this year, including Changgouyu coal mine (pictured above). The last three mines in Beijing will be shut down at some point during the next four years, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform announced Wednesday.

Because of the devastating environmental and health impacts that come with coal consumption, the capital has already taken steps toward decreasing its reliance on coal. In 2010, Beijing’s coal consumption was somewhere around the 26-million-ton mark. In 2015, the capital managed to bring that number down to 12 million tons.

There’s no doubt that coal mining is a dying industry in Beijing, which is why local coal miners and industry workers were issued over RMB160 million (USD23.2 million) in subsidies in 2016. As coal mining slowly becomes a thing of the past in Beijing, the government has promised to develop former coal mining towns and bring new industries in.

[Image via ynet.com]

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