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- According to the International Energy Agency, at China's peak coal consumption from 2013 to 2014, it used about 4.2 billion tons of coal, accounting for half the world's coal consumption. Now, China is mining and using less coal. Energy experts were pleased to see that coal's share of China's total energy consumption fell by 2 percentage points to 62 percent in 2016 as the use of solar and other renewables rose.
Beijing is determined to embrace a shinier, new energy future and get its smothering pollution under control. It has moved 1 million coal workers out of the industry just in the last year, reducing their number to 4 million. Another million or so more are expected to lose their jobs by the year 2020, many in Shanxi, thanks to mine and plant closures.