China's coal consumption declined for the third consecutive year in 2016 in yet another sign that the world's most populous nation is getting serious on its fight against air pollution. The decades of overdependence on coal has made China one of the highest emitters of carbon dioxide and also one of the worst air polluters in the world.

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According to the latest data furnished by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's coal consumption slumped by 4.7 percent last year from the year earlier. Further, the coal's share in the country's energy mix fell down to 2.0 percent, down 2.0 percent on yearly basis.  

The decline in consumption obviously had an adverse impact on the production cycle, with the overall coal production in 2016 dropping by 9.0 percent to 3.41 billion tonnes.     

With coal consumption showing comprehensive decline, the latest data can only be described as highly encouraging. But the positive data came with a caveat as it warned about a "rebound' in coal demand if China continues to stimulate its economy by infrastructure investment."

China burnt billions of tones coal for several decades mainly to generate electricity for its mammoth country. The coal power plants were also generating millions of jobs and tax revenue for the country, which eventually forced it to invest more into coal.

But this severe addiction to coal proved to be an environmentally disastrous decision, with air pollution in China rising to alarming levels in one decade. In fact the latest Greenpeace report depicts a very depressing picture of China's air pollution problem, with the report claiming China and India have recorded the highest number of deaths due to air pollution during in one decade.

This distributing report almost at a time when the entire Northern China was battling tough against smog, which again signified the enormous level the air pollution problem has reached.

Last year, China had announced new regulations to clamp down on coal consumption. The new regulations temporarily halted the approval of new coal-fired power stations and postponed construction of several approved coal plants.

TagsChina coal, China Coal Consumpation, China Air Pollution, china, coal