More polices to encourage greener coal mining should be adopted to cut air pollution as energy consumption in China is expected to exceed targets during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), industry insiders said on Friday.

“China has set a long-term target to control its total energy consumption to within 4 billion metric tons of standard coal by 2015, but this year that figure is likely to reach 3.8 billion tons, making the target hard to keep,” said Pu Hongjiu, former vice-chairman of the China National Coal Association, during the China’s Energy Enterprises Summit Forum.

Energy consumption in China last year reached 3.62 billion tons of standard coal, accounting for 20 percent of the world’s total.

Pu, former vice-minister at the Ministry of Coal Industry, said China has already shut down more than 1,000 small and illegal coal mines in recent years but more efforts should also be made in terms of long-distance transportation of coal to improve efficiency.

“In addition, the direct burning of rough coal should be banned but the use of coal gasification technology will help unlock our vast coal reserves,” he said.