Beijing helps neighboring city cut air pollution

Beijing will allocate 230 million yuan (37 million U.S. dollars) to a neighboring city this year to help fight air pollution.

The funds will be used to help phase out or renovate 867 coal-fired boilers in Langfang, Hebei Province, the Langfang environmental protection bureau said on Tuesday.

The project is expected to help cut coal consumption by about 400,000 tonnes a year, it said.

The move is part of a joint effort to ease air pollution in the Chinese capital and neighboring regions.

Beijing is often shrouded in heavy smog, which has triggered huge public concern. A considerable portion of pollutants in the city come from neighboring regions, particularly Hebei Province, which relies on heavy industry.

Hebei is home to half a dozen of the 10 most polluted cities in the country.

The region has increasingly turned to natural gas to replace polluting coal.

By 2017, Beijing and neighboring regions, including Hebei, Tianjin and Shandong, plan to cut annual coal consumption by 83 million tonnes.

In 2014, the reading of PM2.5, airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns, fell 14.2 percent from the previous year as pollution-fighting efforts yielded results in northern China.