BEIJING health officials grasped the nettle of air pollution today, announcing plans to completely ban use of coal in the city by December 2020.

The Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau made clear that Beijing would prioritise electricity and natural gas for heating.

Coal accounted for a quarter of Beijing’s energy consumption in 2012 and 22 per cent of the fine particles floating in the city’s air. 

Motor vehicles, industrial production and general dust also contributed to pollution in the city of 21 million people.

Even with the Beijing ban coal use is expected to soar in China despite the pressure on central government to clean up the polluted environment, as discontent over smog and water and soil contamination grows.

The government recently listed environmental protection as one of the top criteria by which leaders would be judged.

It announced a prohibition last year on new coal-fired power plants around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.