BEIJING -- To increase cleaner power generation and cut greenhouse gas emissions, China will order power firms nationwide to upgrade coal conservation technology and eliminate outdated capacity.

With stricter environmental protection standards, China will lower the coal-fired generation to under 62 percent of the national total by 2020, according to the plan, and of that thermal coal use should be raised to above 60 percent. Average coal consumption at new power plants should be less than 300 grams of standard coal per kilowatt hour (kwh). Average coal consumption at existing furnaces should be brought below 310 grams of standard coal per kwh before 2020.

At least 10 gigawatts of obsolete thermal power capacity will be phased out by 2020. At least 150 GW of coal-fired power generation capacity will be cleaned up by 2015, and another 350 GW by 2020.

An action plan for the 2014-2020 period was jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the National Energy Administration on Friday.

The action plan comes after the central government approved climate change goals to be met by 2020. Carbon emissions per unit of GDP will be cut by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level.

It will also bring the proportion of non-fossil fuels to about 15 percent of primary energy consumption by 2020.

China is the world's largest consumer of coal, accounting for around half of global consumption. Nearly 70 percent of its energy comes from coal, a ratio much higher than in developed countries, which use cleaner resources like oil and gas. China has the world's third-largest coal reserves but lacks gas and oil.

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